Metempsychotic
by Kessie-Louise
Summary: Vent and Aile are soon to find that they have more in common than just appearances. A reunion between two special entities is set to take place after years of separation, but will the very forces bringing them together tear them apart again? [revisioning of the ZX storyline][Complete]
1. Too Early

It was early- way too early for Vent's liking.

A few days ago, Girouette had asked Vent to come with him for a delivery. It was something special, so Vent had been told. Something so special that he wasn't even allowed to know what the package was, but there was going to be a rendezvous point, and the folks picking up were called the 'Guardians'. Not that it completely mattered to him; getting the news had been like winning the lottery for the boy -due to a previous ban preventing him from directly coming to exchanges- but he never would have thought that they were doing it this early in the morning. The sky was just now starting to turn blue from a gorgeous pink sunrise. Unfortunately, the boy cared for none of it as patience was not a virtue on his side, nor was a mystery that his caretaker and boss refused to disclose with him.

"Park your bike here." Giro informed Vent once they had reached a point on a high cliff far from the city.

"Only if you tell me what we're doing here." Vent challenged, feeling quite tired and angry that Giro had kept the secret for this long. Giro turned to give Vent a hard stare, and was about to say something before his thoughts were interrupted with the sound of a buzzer. Still giving Vent a rather heated glare, Giro pressed and held onto a button on the white headset that covered his ears.

"Thank you for calling Giro Express!" Giro said in a rehearsed tone with a phrase well known, "We can take anything, anywhere! This is Girouette speaking, what can I transport for you today?"

"A pillow and blanket to sleep on would be nice." Vent groaned as he turned around. "Dunno who would call at this stupid hour. Must be Reploid... they _never_ sleep..."

Perfectly ignoring the glare Giro was giving him, Vent looked out to the valley surrounding them. The view the cliff gave them was almost breathtaking, and it served to be the ideal spot to take a picture perfect outline of the city. The highlight would have been the Serpent Inc building, which proved to be twice as large as the average skyscraper but far more grand. Looking around at the landscape made Vent remember someone who went missing.

It had been another member of Giro Express, and a rather long member at that. Her name had been Juno, and Vent loved her. At least, he loved her the same way you would love your own mother. He had always been told that she was the only one that could calm him when he was a baby. And that one time when he ran away because he thought Giro was overworking him, Juno was the one who just let him chill with her even though she was on vacation. He didn't like telling anyone, but Vent also kinda shipped Giro and Juno together. He didn't know why, but it just seemed right.

"Well that's just perfect. They decided to meet somewhere else instead, as if this week couldn't get any better..." Giro mumbled as he finished the phone call. "Vent, are you ready to leave? We need to move out as soon as possible."

The boy did not answer his superior directly, and instead continued to look out at the city skyline.  
"Vent!" Giro snapped, "Can you hear me!?"

Again, Girouette was answered with silence. With a deep sigh, Giro joined Vent in staring out to the city with heavy thoughts.

"You can see the Slither Inc building from here." Giro remarked in a rather unimpressed tone. "They've been working rather tirelessly for this country for the past several years. And here we are, without a camera..."

Vent shifted just a tiny bit. "Giro…?" the boy then asked in a small tone.

"Yes?"

"Where do you think Juno went?"

"What does Juno have to do with anything?" Giro unintentionally snapped. "We have a client waiting for us and a package to deliver. If we're late again for another meeting, so help me Vent you will never be allowed to-"

"Who are these stupid Guardians we took the job from any way? And what makes that dumb package so special?" Vent shot back, so tired that he didn't bother to choose his words carefully. Not that he ever did, really. Besides, Giro wasn't usually this impatient about deliveries... "And why are you more concerned about its safety than the whereabouts of my mo-… of… of our friend."

Something in Girouette's eyes slowly started to dim before he took a rather heavy sigh. "The Guardians are a defense force that banded together to help fight the Mavericks. Right now, they're even moving place to place to investigate the root of the outbreaks. As for the package..."

"The package you keep replacing Juno with..." Vent grumbled bitterly.

"Try not to ask too many questions." Girouette finished passively. "I'm sure it's very important to the Guardians and just as dangerous. I think it's better that we don't know about it."

"Sure it is." Vent defiantly muttered under his breath.

"Come on." Girouette then offered. "The faster we can get this done, the faster we can start a search party for our friend. Who knows, maybe by the time we get back, she'll be waiting for us back at home. We'll never know until we get a move on; so, does that sound like a deal to you?"

Vent looked up at his caretaker and boss with a renewed sense of hope.

"I get to lead this time!" Vent declared as he raced to their motorbikes. Smiling to himself, Giro shook his head and followed Vent, who was now on the bike ready to take off.

"Are you going to lead us into a tree again?" Girouette teased. For a moment, Vent paused before putting on a rather cheesy expression in preparation to retort, but he was cut short by three energy rounds from a buster. One of the rounds hit Giro's bike, another just barely grazing the top of Vent's head.

In the distance, Vent could barely make out the figure of something feminine, but at the same time mechanical, while two other figures advanced toward him with rigid (yet oddly pretty quick) movement. He subconsciously decided to completely ignore the front soldiers, and remained focused on that female figure.

"Who is…?" Vent started to muse before another buster round was aimed almost directly at him- without him even noticing how close Girouette was, his caretaker had scooped him off and behind Vent's bike for cover. The buster round continued its path, hitting a lone, already gnarled, tree. Vent's mind kept reeling onto the female figure that he was almost desensitized to what was going on around him.

"Those would be Mavericks." Girouette quickly told the boy. "But how did they get here?"

In a sort of answer, the Mavericks fired more rounds at the bikes, causing Giro's to start smoking. Suddenly, Girouette was hit with an idea.

"They're after the package…!" he realized, sounding as if he were only talking to himself before jumping over Vent's bike to get behind his own. Vent, forgetting the situation for a moment, stood up to figure out what Giro was doing. It was then that one of the Mavericks were able to connect several rounds to the tank of Vent's bike; the results were almost instant, causing an explosion to knock Vent off his feet and over the cliff.

"Vent!" Girouette's panicked voice rang out as Vent felt himself fall. The descent itself didn't feel long, but it also seemed to go on forever, with the ground greeting the boy with a sickening thud. Dizzy, and possibly sick to his stomach, Vent's world dimmed to black with only a few senses still in work. If he felt pain, it was currently being dimmed by the adrenaline driven confusion he now had. Some where, at the back of his mind, he could hear the voice of someone almost too familiar.

 _Did you see… Rush… I think someone is… come on Rush we need to… in… come_ on _Rush, I think it's… I can feel… I can… wait, can you… do you have... Rush!_

His senses were now slowly leaving him too, and in a last act of coherency Vent muttered a single name before completely giving in to drift into a short, dreamless slumber.

 _I'm coming Prea! I'm coming!_


	2. Model X

_Prea…! Don't black out now! I'm coming to find you! I'm coming Prea! I'm coming…!_

He didn't want to, but Vent carefully blinked his eyes open and forgot for a moment where he was. Emitting a low 'ow' of discomfort as he attempted to sit up, Vent carefully turned his body around to get a better idea of his surroundings. Not far away, something blue was floating in the air, just a foot or two off the ground- although he took a moment to consider if he was going crazy, Vent took note of the brown paper packaging and realized that the package meant to be delivered had fallen with him.

A delivery was still a delivery, he unfortunately knew, and it was his responsibility to keep it safe. Curious, however, Vent looked back up the cliff and wondered how he was able to make it down without feeling too bad. He couldn't hear anything going on up there either.

"Giro!" he called upwards. "Giro can you hear me?!"

No one answered.

"He'll be fine." Vent decided with a raise and lower of his shoulder. "I bet he's already on his way here. Yeah, that's totally it."

If only he believed what he was trying to tell himself.

Still convincing himself of things he knew wasn't a possibility, Vent worked himself up and brushed off a few leaves from his pants.

"Okay but," he then said to himself as he scratched the back of his head, "That was a really nasty fall. Ow..." After saying this, Vent turned his attention back to the package. No, it wasn't a package anymore since it was uncovered, it was a… an object. A blue (with a red triangle like gem in the center and some white accents), kinda six sided, low glow emitting object that seemed so familiar…

Vent's mind had drawn a blank as he walked toward the object subconsciously. Carefully, his hand started to raise in hopes of touching this object; his fingertips could feel the warmth radiating from the object. It recognized him, it loved him, it wanted him to-

"Who are you?!" someone demanded, violently snapping Vent out of his trance, "What are you doing here?!"

Vent looked up to see two men dressed in some green uniform, and then quickly noticed that they were armed. Immediately, Vent raised his hands in the air to show innocence. "W-wait!" he stuttered, still shocked from coming out of the trance, "I'm just here to deliver a package."

"Lower your weapons." a female voice said from behind the green men. Hearing her, the green men jumped out of the way to allow her to pass through them. The girl that came through wore a pink uniform, but with a coat that somehow made her more important than the others. Her golden blonde hair hung behind her, the top hidden under a pink hat that matched the ornateness of her coat. She didn't seem threatening or violent, just... cute, in all said and done.

"Are you affiliated with Giro Express?" the girl asked, her voice no dangerous as her outfit and holding a still calm.

"Yeah I am." Vent agreed with a firm nod. "Are you part of the Guardians?"

"Yes." the girl affirmed. "I'm very sorry we had to change the rendezvous point, but there was something of great emergency, and we needed to evacuate where we were quickly..."

"Don't sweat it." Vent told her, giving her a wide smile. "Changing locations is no big deal- now bailing, I would probably hold a grudge against you if you bailed."

Despite herself, the girl let out a small laughter. "I think I would have held a grudge against myself if we let that happen." she teased. Vent smiled back at her- he liked her as far as first impressions went, he liked her even more than that albino kid he and Giro transported some time back.

"If you would like to take the package back with us," the girl then offered, "We can all head back to the rendezvous point."

Vent decided that this would have been a pretty good idea, and was just about to say so before the ground started to shake violently. From behind the Guardians, a large snake-like Mechaniloid appeared, whipping its tail at the Guardians, just barely missing the green Guardians by a centimeter.

"W-what is that?!" one of the green Guardians questioned.

"A snake Mechaniloid..." Vent muttered to himself, "Could it be the reason Boss and I were attacked?"

Understanding the danger everyone was in, the green Guardians then fired their hand busters at the Mechaniloid. The snake recoiled a little bit, but it did not seemed to be harmed. Everyone soon found out why it relented slightly, as it then whipped its tail back at them- succeeding in hitting the green Guardians with enough force to knock them out.

"No!" the girl reacted, going over to the side of one of them. Vent looked up at the Mechaniloid as it prepared for another attack, then he looked down at the girl before getting next to her. He tried to lift her up so they could get out, but she was a lot heavier than what he had first assumed.

"Come… on!" Vent grunted, putting all his weight into making the girl get up. "We need to get going before it decides to strike again. If it's the package they want, then let them have it!"

"But the Biometal..." Prairie lamented, giving a look at the object sorrowfully. "It can't get into the wrong hands. Sis left it for us to..."

"It's not worth losing your life over!" Vent shouted at her. "I'm not just going to leave you here mourning over a stupid piece of rock. Come on!"

The Mechaniloid made another attempt to knock the two out, but missed barely as the girl allowed Vent to move her away from the green Guardians.

"We can't get out." the girl informed Vent. "It's blocking the way."

"I'll find a way." Vent defiantly growled. "I just… I just need a little help."

' _Then I will help you._ _I'll lend you a hand._ '

Vent spun his head around to look at the object, it was now glowing brighter than what it had before and was making its way toward him. Pulled in by a trance once more, Vent reached out to the object and once it was in his hand, it started to singe at his skin.

"Ah!" Vent shouted in surprise, holding the object tighter by reflex and using his opposite arm to support the other.

' _Biolink established!_ ' the object declared, now sounding to be directly in Vent's mind, ' _M.E.G.A. System online!_ '

From his hand, the object started to crawl up his arm in a feeling that was like being buried alive. Instinctively, Vent raised his arm, and the object continued to crawl downwards at this new positioning. Every part of him became wrapped with a new armor that embedded itself into every core in his body. It felt exhilarating, powerful even, as the object finished off its transformation, Vent lowered his arm once more to take direct aim at the Mechaniloid. The hand that once held the object before was now an arm buster, from the extra power given from the transformation, the buster created a powerful blast that hit the Mechaniloid with enough force that he backed away. Dizzy as he slowly became aware of what had happened, Vent watched the Mechaniloid go deeper into the forest, away from the Guardians and himself.

From her position, the girl had seen it all and was now viewing Vent in awe. "He... transformed?" she questioned to herself, staring at Vent as if he had somehow changed his skin color- and in some ways, he had. The girl then held her head down to the ground in prayer before letting out a relieved, "Oh, thank god..."

' _Hello Prea, don't be afraid. I am Biometal Model X. Do you remember me?_ '

"Why should I?" Vent questioned, unsure of whether to answer verbally or mentally. "And the name's Vent, not Prea." That being said, Vent then turned to the girl. "Hey, you needed this transported to the rendezvous point, right? I'll get it there, just don't go any where!"

And with that, Vent took off. But the girl wasn't going to let him go that easily.

"I have a name you know!" she shouted at him. "It's Prairie, and you better memorize it because they're gonna ask you when you reach the rendezvous point!"

Vent paused for a moment to walk back over to her, then gave her a swift salute. "Hello Prairie," he then greeted, "The name's Vent, and I'm going to be your transporter today. Stay here, sit back, relax, and I'll get some help!"

Prairie fought the urge to gratify him with a smile. "Alright..." she agreed. "Be safe Vent."

Vent gave one more salute before dashing out of sight. Prairie took a few more minutes to insure that Vent was out of ear range before turning on her communication link.

"Giro? Girouette can you hear me?" she said into the headset. "Vent was down here with us, and he Megamerged with Model X!"


	3. Easy Lies

One last charged shot from Model X's buster and the Mechaniloid reached critical damage. After watching it go down in a rather impressive explosion, Vent took some time to stand back to admire that power of the Biometal.

"We did it." Vent remarked gleefully. "You said your name was Model X, right? I wanna know- why did you decided to help me? And why on earth did you think my name was Prea?"

' _Do I need a reason to help people?_ ' the Biometal questioned. ' _You seemed rather determined to help that girl even though you've never met her before. You said you needed help, so I gave it to you for your bravery._ '

Vent snorted. "Me? Brave?" he chuckled. "Dude, you have the wrong guy if you thought I was brave back there. She needed to get out of there, sure, I was going to do all it took to get her to move, but that doesn't mean I was brave. Besides, you need to answer my other question, who the heck is Prea?"

' _If you truly believe that I am mistaken for thinking you brave, then assume I was wrong about calling you Prea. I apologize. Maybe for a moment I give in to a more older, unstable ISO and became confused. It wouldn't have been the first time._ '

"No sweat." Vent shrugged. "And look, the rendezvous point is right there. Hmm, maybe that's where the Mechaniloid was heading for before we stopped it. Good thing we got rid of it, huh?"

Feeling proud, Vent walked into the transerver station to be greeted by three more green Guardians and a small, but older looking Guardian dressed in a blue uniform.

"Hiya!" Vent greeted, saluting to them, "I'm the transporter from Giro Express with your package. But there was an accident earlier so some of your comrades fell back deeper into the forest. I fought off most of what I could, Prairie also mentioned that I had to-"

"Prairie?!" one of the green Guardians questioned, coming to alert. "Come on boys, she needs our help!"

Without having to be told twice, all three of the green Guardians left, leaving Vent alone with the old, blue uniformed Guardian.

"So you must be..." the Guardian started to mutter to himself, scratching underneath his blue cap with wonder. "Amazing..."

Vent didn't take much notice. "Have you seen another transporter come by?" the boy asked. "I lost him around the same time the Mavericks went after your friends."

"No." the blue Guardian shook his head. "You're the first I've seen come by here."

Directly after, a call came in to the transerver. The blue Guardians entered a few codes before declaring, "This is Fleuve, go on ahead Marue."

"This is the rescue squad," a voice on the other end informed them, "Everyone has been found and recovered. We'll treat the casualties and then head straight to HQ."

"Before you do that, could you check around the area for another transporter? He was separated from our younger one here earlier."

"No we ha-" Marue started to say, but was cut off by something. "But… there seems to be some serious smoke coming from a nearby area. It looks like something or someone might be in a heated battle, we can move toward it to see if we can find..."

"Boss!" Vent suddenly exclaimed. Quickly, he turned to Fleuve. "Sorry but I'm gonna have to keep the Biometal for a bit longer. I have to help him!"

The boy started to sprint toward the exit, but was stopped by Fleuve- who knew the tiny Guardian could move so quickly.

"You're not going to put the Biometal at risk again." the Guardian told the boy sternly. "We are more than capable of-"

"Oh, since I'm here now with your precious package, you don't care about the guy that helped deliver it to you?" Vent snapped, shoving Fleuve off of him. Surprised, the Guardian didn't say a thing.

"Fleuve, let him go!" the voice of Prairie resonated from the transerver's speaker. Fleuve whipped around to face the transerver as if Prairie was standing in its place, his face growing pink from confusion and exasperation.

"B-but…!" the Guardian stuttered. "Prairie, he's…!"

"I know... but I don't care. He has the power to control the Biometal so let him use it; that's what Sis would have wanted."

Holding his breath for a moment, Fleuve eventually relented. "Fine." he decided before turning to Vent. "The Guardians have tracked the signals close to the area, you should be able to get there without much harm. But after you find him, you're gonna have to take a test to get into Guardian HQ for further briefing on your Biometal's abilities. Do you understand me?"

"Yep." Vent agreed with a nod. "Find Boss, take a test, then get to HQ for story time. Sound great. I'll be back soon!" and with that, he was off.

. . .

"There are signs of a struggle here..." Vent mumbled to himself as he came to notice the destruction of several lesser Mechaniloids. He bent down to get a closer look of one. It had been cut in half with a near clean cut; looking at it gave Vent a cold shiver.

' _Out of curiosity, does this… Giro strike with anger often?_ ' Model X inquired, taking note of the damage himself as it reminded him of someone.

"Giro? Pssht, No way! The boss is a pacifist for everything, it makes him so..." trailing off, Vent saw an airship hover not that far from him. It had a rather irregular flight pattern to it, and it seemed, almost as if it were getting closer to him.

Then, without warning, a hatch on the bottom of the ship opened up, releasing a small slew of boxes to rain down on Vent. Reacting in time, Vent jumped out of the way then aimed to fire at the opened hatch. It seemed to work for a few moment as the ship fell back a bit, but then it came back. The ship opened the hatch once again for more boxes to rain down on the boy- and once again he retaliated by firing a shot up through the hatch. It didn't take long for Vent to grow tired of this strategy, although there seemed to be no other alternative.

The ship started to open its hatch again, but was stopped in the middle as a dash of red jumped from above to slash it in half. The ship fell to the ground in two halves as a figure armored in red started to make its way toward Vent. Instinctively, Vent prepared the buster to attack.

' _So this is the Chosen One for Model X?_ ' a new voice rang out, a thought-speak method similar to what Model X used.

"Apparently." the red stranger affirmed in a soft voice Vent instantly recognized. "You don't seem too impressed."

' _He didn't have to waste the opportunity to choose someone better…_ '

The armored stranger then held their hand out in front of them before getting caught in a bright flash of light. Vent covered his eyes, soon removing them to find that Giro was standing where the stranger once was.

"Boss!" Vent exclaimed, looking his mentor up and down as if he didn't recognize him. "How…?!"

"Each of our bikes were holding a Biometal," Giro explained, "That was why I went to my bike before yours exploded. After you fell, the Mavericks had me cornered. I got the Biometal out and asked to call on its power to get rid of them. Heh, I knew we were hauling something special, but I no idea of the true abilities it possessed."

"Wait… How do you know it's called a Biometal?" Vent questioned, folding his arms in thought.

"Ah… well..." his boss faltered for a moment, "I heard about it when I got the request. Yes, and they told me to keep quiet because it could impose a serious risk if anyone dangerous found out."

"Oh… I see." Vent agreed. Not that long ago, Juno had once told Vent that he was very easy to lie to. It had been a light conversation, brought on by the boredom of nothing on TV. When Vent denied ever being lied to before, Juno then went into a full list of everything she ever lied to him about. The tooth fairy, Saint Nicolas, that one time she swiped his handheld game system (with Net Brawl 2 inside, no less!), accidentally broke it, then proceeded to blame it all on Sho... How Giro's discovery reminded the boy of this was anyone's guess, but Vent didn't think too much of it.

"At least we know that two Biometals are safe." Girouette then decided, giving Vent a calm pat on the shoulder. The boy almost didn't realize that his caretaker also gave his shoulder a small squeeze, as if it were meant as a warning, or a certain bit of sorrow that didn't want to seethe into the boy. Maybe it had been a hint- a hint that something had happened that Giro didn't want Vent to know about.

"I'm going to use the transerver to get to Guardian HQ." Girouette then informed the boy. "I'll be expecting you to be close behind, so don't take too long."

Vent watched his mentor go to the transerver room and wondered something, if only for a second, before Prairie interrupted his thoughts.

"It sounds like you found Giro." she greeted through the headset cheerfully. "But you need permission to get into Guardian HQ, remember? Area C isn't that much further ahead from you, head on over and you'll meet with a Guardian who can tell you more about the test. Be safe Vent, and we'll meet again soon!"

"Thanks Prairie." Vent thanked before hanging up the connection and heading into town.


	4. Rush into Treble

"Rush, nothing's here." she bemoaned softly to her red wolf-dog. "Maybe I was just going insane earlier or something. Any way, let's head back toward Cinq Ville- I'm hungry, I'm half starved. Let's go."

But her mutt stayed put. If it could talk to her right now, it would either be a 'keep looking, we're getting close' or 'maybe you're right, but let's look around a few more moments please'. She didn't feel like doing either, so she started to head back.

"Good byyyye Rush!" she carelessly called over her shoulder. The wolf-dog stood at attention for this, then made a leap toward her- knocking her from behind for them both to fall to the ground. In a small amount of pain, the girl craned her neck around to get a look at her mutt.

"So nice of you to join us." she remarked with a snide smirk. Rush replied with a happy bark.

. . .

The girl followed her wolf-dog to the baker in Cinq Ville. Lucia, the baker, had made something so sweet smelling that the young girl could nearly feel her stomach growl in protest.

"Hey Alia!" Lucia greeted once she was close enough. It was a game to the baker to call the girl the wrong name, and she didn't like it one bit.

"It's Aile." the girl told him in a flat tone. "It's not short for anything, it's just Aile."

"Right, right. Sure it is." Lucia dismissed playfully with a wave of her hand. "Hey, have you ever found that guy that used to come with you? What was his name? Oba… Over..."

"I don't know where he is." the girl said, shrinking a little. "And if it weren't for you always reminding me of him, I would think that I only dreamed him up..."

"Trust me kid, it's hard to not forget a Reploid like that. Walking around like he's Mega Man X or something, I'd hate to say that the dog's a good substitute, but it's kinda true when you think about it."

Rush looked up at Lucia innocently as he panted away.

"I suppose you master duo would like something to eat?" Lucia then asked, reaching down to scratch Rush behind the ear.

"I'm hungry, I'm half starved," Aile agreed. "What do you want me to do?"

"Well..." the baker then said thoughtfully, "Some guy dropped this thing earlier. Maybe you could return it to him for me?"

Aile watched as Lucia went inside her bakery to get something, and ended up coming out with a white stuffed animal, shaped like a cat. As Aile carefully took it from Lucia, she noticed that it had little green wings attached to it.

"A stuffed animal?" Aile asked, giving the stuffed cat a squeeze, allowing herself to giggle at it. "It's really cute- really soft too. Why would anyone drop it?"

"Dunno." Lucia told her, sounding just as confused. "The guy mentioned something about a test, qualification certification, and a HQ. It might have been intended to go through quality control or something. Looks kind of old to me, though, so I don't know why they would do that. But they were heading toward the transerver down the road; you think you can take it to them for me kid?"

"Sure." Aile agreed, holding the stuffed cat even tighter. "You'll make me some curry while I return it, won't you?"

"Of course Alia." Lucia teased.

"It's Aile." the girl retorted. She then looked down at Rush. "Come on Rush," she said to him, "We need to get to the transerver quick."

The wolf-dog looked up at her and gave a confirming bark before the two bolted out the door. Lucia looked back at them and smiled with a small shake of her head. An odd couple those two, but definitely inseparable.

It didn't take long for Aile and Rush to reach the transerver room in Cinq Ville. Inside waiting was some guy dressed in a green uniform. Assuming that this was who dropped the stuffed cat -as seeing he seemed to be a bit nervous about something- Aile walked over to him.

"Hello sir," the girl greeted cheerfully, "I think you dropped this earlier…?"

The green guy (a Guardian, as the back of her mind told her for some reason) looked up at her and nearly jumped out of his skin.

"Vent…? Already?!" he declared, sounding surprised. "You still have two more Guardians to..."

Aile gave the green guy a tilt of her head, her face scrunching into an expression of confusion as the green guy realized that she wasn't who he thought she was. Bashfully, the green guy started to blush at his mistake.

"S-sorry miss..." he apologized, "You look a lot like someone else I'm supposed to see… Heh..."

"Is this yours?" Aile asked again, holding the stuffed cat up. Seeing it, the green guy visibly relaxed.

"Yes." he sighed. "Yes it is. I thought I lost it for good for awhile, the commander was going to have my head if I lost it again..."

"Is it important?" Aile questioned as she handed the stuffed cat over. The guy took it from her carefully and in gratefulness.

"Our commander's had it for a long time- it also happens to be one of her most prized possessions." he affirmed. "It's older than you, maybe even older than I am."

"Ah, I see." Aile nodded. "I'm glad we were able to return it to you. Aren't we Rush?"

Her dog did not answer because he was no longer at her side. Without a second thought, forgetting to say good bye to the green Guardian, Aile rushed out of the transerver room and quickly scanned the immediate area for Rush.

"Rush!" she shouting, cupping her hands to her mouth. "Rush where did you go?"

From a distance, Aile could hear her troublesome dog bark. Starting out in a walk before breaking into a run, Aile ran toward the bark, still calling out Rush's name in every version possible. When she caught up to that annoying mutt, she was going to kill him.

. . .

Meanwhile, Vent was counting with his fingers how many more Guardians he had to find. He had found… three, so far. So he had… two more to find. Right?

Distracting him from his thoughts, he heard the barks of some dog come closer and closer to him until something red bounded on him without mercy.

"Hey, get off of me!" Vent demanded as the red thing started to lick his face without signs of stopping. "Get off of me! Stop!"

Complying, the red thing stopped licking him long enough for Vent to sit up. "Ye-uck." the boy bemoaned as he wiped the thing's slobber off of him. Getting enough away from his eyes, Vent focused his vision to see a red wolf-like dog sitting in front of him, tail wagging and looked as innocent as a lamb.

"You look like you're in trouble." Vent remarked to it. "Treble. I bet your name's Treble, isn't it?"

The dog gave its reply in a happy woof before leaping onto Vent again to lick his face.

"Alright, alright! Get off please!" Vent protested. It took a bit longer for the dog to get off this time, but he did. "Hey," Vent then suggested as an idea came to him, "Could you help me find the last two Guardians?"

Treble gave a bark that Vent assumed was a 'yes' before he started to bound toward one of the buildings. Excitedly hopping in place, waiting for Vent to follow him, Treble gave impatient woofs and barks to alert Vent that he knew exactly what he was looking for.

' _Are you really going to take advice from a dog?_ ' Model X questioned, not judging, but genuinely curious.

"It's worth a shot, isn't it?" Vent asked in return. "Besides, what could possibly happen by following a dog around?"


	5. A Little Hint

Aile gave in to her hunger only ten minutes after trying to find Rush. Lucia offered all the sympathy she had for the girl.

"He'll turn up again later, he always does." Lucia offered. Aile gave a little nod as she lazily circled the inside of her bowl with her spoon. She had finished the curry not long before, and now she was questioning what idea possessed her to have the spicy food so early in the morning.

"Where would he go, though?" Aile questioned. "He's never gone this long..."

Lucia bit her lower lip a little in thought. As she was looking up, the baker saw that unpredictable red wolf-dog, and was ready to signal Aile before Lucia took notice of the boy accompanying the dog. It was at that moment Lucia thought that she had gone completely, and utterly insane.

"Lucia, do you have any boiled eggs left?" Aile asked, although the baker had completely tuned her out, focused on the boy with Rush. Aile picked up on this quickly, and turned herself around to look where Lucia was staring. What Aile saw was the back of the boy's head with Rush in front.

"Hey!" Aile shouted, jumping off of the stool to chase after them. "That's my dog you jerk!"

Both the boy and dog stopped. Rush took it upon himself to head back in the opposite direction toward Aile as if she had called him, and he was forever diligent. He leaped at her and proceeded to lick her face, completely blinding her from the boy as he walked over.

"I didn't know he was your dog." the boy said to her, sounding apologetic enough. "He was helping me with a mission of sorts, but now that I'm finished I was heading over to the transerver. He seems to have really missed you."

"It's not a big deal." Aile proclaimed as she tried to stand up. Rush kept jumping into her arms, obstructing her view of the boy at several points. "He does it a lot."

"I thought he looked like a trouble maker." the boy laughed, a laugh that Aile thought she recognized from a long time ago. Rush happened to squirm away enough for Aile to take note of the boy's shoes (they looked a lot like hers), his pants (they were the same color as hers, but longer), and just a tiny bit of his vest (which was not only the same color, but the same style too). "I nicknamed him Treble."

"Yeah," Aile agreed with a little laugh of her own, "Treble in trouble."

"It was nice meeting you." the boy then said to her as he turned away. "See you later Crea."

"See you soon Prea." Aile agreed as she headed back to Lucia's bakery. It didn't dawn on her until much later for what she had said to him.

. . .

Vent, however, had noticed all too quickly and was starting to question why.

' _Only two beings have called you Prea,_ ' Model X reminded him, ' _Those facts alone do not make this something you need to take too seriously._ '

"Maybe, maybe not." Vent agreed. "But it's very, very…. weird. Don't you think? When I first saw you, it was like I was being drawn in by something familiar -like an old memory- and with that girl… I didn't have to think about calling her that name. And when I think of it, she seemed kinda familiar too. I feel like I met both of you before a long, long time ago..."

" _Vent, you're only 14, and I doubt that girl was much older. As for myself, I can assure you that I am much older than the both of you. How could you have known us when you're still so young?_ '

"I'm not that young." Vent defiantly declared. "We really need to get to the transerver- it's going to really suck if we end up failing a game of hide and seek."

Model X gave an affirmative sound that substituted for a nod as Vent started to break into a run. Waiting for them in the transerver room was a green suited Guardian, who seemed to make sure Vent really was who he thought it was before giving the boy a nod.

"You passed the test Vent!" the Guardian greeted happily. "Here, this is your certification."

From behind him, the Guardian pulled out a white stuffed cat. Giving it a funny look, Vent took it by a little paw and held it out away from him as if it smelled rotten.

"A stuffed animal?" he questioned with an upturned nose, taking note that the cat had little wings on it. "This is my certification?!"

"You better take care of that." the Guardian warned Vent in a tone that wasn't malicious, but wasn't kind either. "It's one of Prairie's most prized possessions. The current coordinates to get into HQ are etched into the cat's wings, use the transerver behind me to put them in. Don't forget those numbers either- you wouldn't be the first new recruit to forget the passcode."

"Thanks." Vent grumbled before the Guardian teleported away. Vent then walked over to the transporter and carefully put the coordinates into the machine. It responded instantly, the transerver activating and starting the teleport sequence before enveloping him in a bright light. When the light cleared, Vent found himself in a new transerver room with a window nearby. He made the mistake of looking out the window, and nearly jumped out of his skin.

"Guardian HQ… is a freaking airship?!" Vent exclaimed, jamming his face up against the window to get a better look at the clouds below. They were over an area that Vent didn't easily recognize, which meant that they were likely outside of the city. Giro, who Vent didn't see at first, was sitting on a bench opposite of the window, his head was buried in his hands as if something were troubling him.

' _He's here Girouette,_ ' Vent heard Model Z say, drawing his attention to his boss.

"Boss!" Vent happily proclaimed as he rushed over to his caretaker. "Are you doing alright? Did you get hurt after we got separated? Can I see what your Biometal looks like? I didn't get a good look earlier. What do you think Juno and Sho are going to say when we tell them about the Biometals?!"

For a split second, Vent could have sworn that Girouette looked like someone had stabbed him. It didn't seem right on Giro, that's for sure, whatever Vent saw.

"Come." his caretaker then said in a low tone that seemed out of place with his generally soft voice. "The commander is waiting for us at the control center."

Vent gave a firm nod as the two walked out together. It had been a short walk overall, and when Vent entered he was in awe. Waiting for them was Prairie.

"Prairie!" Vent exclaimed, "You're safe!"

"Vent," Girouette then snapped suddenly, "You can't just call her by her first name."

"Don't worry about it Giro," Prairie shrugged happily, "He doesn't know yet."

"Know what?" Vent questioned, looking from Giro to Prairie feeling as if he were missing something. Prairie let out a tiny little laugh and smiled at him.

"Let me take this opportunity to properly welcome you to Guardian Headquarters." she announced proudly. "I am Prairie, commander of the Guardians."

Vent could feel his jaw drop the floor. "Y-you…?" he stuttered. "The commander of… of _all_ the Guardians?! How….? You're just a little girl! How are you leader of the Guardians?!"

"Although airborne Maverick attacks have been eliminated decades ago, there is still a steady rise in implied Maverick attacks." Prairie informed him. "The Guardians were formed to find the root of the implied attacks. My Sis was the first commander, but she went missing almost fourteen years ago. It was a rather heated debate but..."

"You took over for her." Vent finished. Prairie nodded.

"Exactly." she agreed. "No space of the ship is wasted. For example, here at the bridge, we can assess all sorts of information; records, Reploid data, photographs even, to insure that we can help where we're needed. Some times even before a disaster happens."

"Photographs…" Vent murmured to himself as he thought fleetingly of someone for a moment. "Does Juno know about the Guardians?"

"Yes." Prairie affirmed. "Under an anonymous suggestion, she became a secret keeper of sorts toward the Guardians. Her photographs have come in quite handy with some of our recon units."

"So she's here too, right?" Vent then asked, gearing up for the happy discussion he would have when they met up again.

"Just because she helps keep the Guardian's location private doesn't mean she has access to the ship." Prairie smirked. "Such as you had to do, she needed to pass a test."

"Did she ever take it?"

Prairie shook her head. "She refused."

"Why?! This is the coolest place ever!"

"She had her reasons." Prairie told him. "I believe one of them was due to a young man that she loved very much."

Vent thought the statement over before coming to the conclusion that Prairie meant him. Of course Juno loved him; she was like a big sister to him, mother even. Without even realizing it, the corner of Vent's mouth formed into a bright, cheesy smile of delight.

"Vent, how about you take a trip around the ship?" she then suggested, seeming to be distracted by something else. "I need to discuss something to Girouette about the Biometals."

"Sure!" the teen agreed happily before leaving the command center. He burst out the doors and looked from side to side. Oh, where was he going to go first?


	6. The Wrong One

The Guardian HQ was both as big as he thought, but smaller than what it seemed. He didn't recognize everyone that was around the ship, but there at least two or three faces he knew. The first had been Muguet, who had been his doctor since time immortal. She seemed pleased to know that he was a part of the Guardians now, and even more pleased that he was a match for a Biometal.

It was quite some time before Vent realized that he had forgotten Prairie's stuffed cat back in the transerver room, having dropped it when he realized they were in the air. Now feeling guilty a bit, Vent made his way back to the transerver and found the poor abandoned thing near the window. Gingerly, he picked the stuffed cat up and headed back to the command center.

"Hey Prairie," Vent said as he entered the room, "I forgot about your stuffed cat earlier. It was the certification that I passed the trail, right?"

Prairie turned around, nearly surprised. "Oh," she remarked, "Thank you so much. I forgot about it too."

Smiling, Prairie took her stuffed cat from Vent and put it into a small receptacle by the commander's chair. It was made to fit exactly that stuffed cat, Vent realized with a little twinge of humor. Looking over a bit, Vent then noticed Giro sitting in the chair, his eyes closed and several wires connected to the back of his neck. It was no secret to Vent that Girouette was indeed a Reploid, but that didn't stop the shock of seeing his caretaker wired up like that.

"What's wrong with Giro?!" Vent immediately questioned. Prairie looked at him for a minute as if she had no idea what he was talking about, but then she looked back at the commander's chair. Realizing what Vent was asking, Prairie let out a little laugh- it seemed a bit forced.

"Girouette encountered a new enemy while you two were separated; as with certain procedures, and since he's a Reploid, we are currently extracting the battle data directly from his memories."

"Really?" Vent marveled. "That's actually pretty cool!"

"Yes… well, the event was very traumatizing for him," Prairie denoted with a rather uncomfortable shift, "So he agreed to go into a sort of state similar to a medically induced coma. He should be coming out of it soon- we finished downloading the battle data just seconds before you came in."

"Does it hurt him?" Vent then wondered, slowly starting to get used to the image of Girouette attached to the wires.

Prairie shook her head. "No." she affirmed. "Once he was in a deep enough state, he couldn't hear us either. He might not remember this conversation later, even if he was listening now. When he wakes, he will still have to rest for about six hours so everything can properly reboot."

Vent nodded, trying to understand what little knowledge he had on Reploid anatomy. The whole thing was complex, perhaps growing to be more complex than a human's. Vent never cared to learn much of it, mostly due to it hurting his brain enough that calculus seemed easy in comparison.

Taking Vent away from his thoughts Giro started to shift in the commander chair. Prairie and Vent stood at attention, waiting to see what would happen. Then, to the surprise of both of them, Girouette let out a long sigh -the same type of sigh one would give when they've just fallen in love- and slowly, Giro started to open his eyes. Vent found himself partially shocked that he could see the optics in Girouette's eyes work to focus on him and Prairie.

"Hey… Vent..." Girouette greeted with a lopsided smile. Vent looked at Giro as if it was the first time he met him; Prairie did say that had a direct link to his brain… "Come here." Giro then said to the boy. Unsure of what else to do, Vent did so. His caretaker indicated the need for the boy to bend down a bit, and he did, growing more uneasy on how this was going to go.

"Look at you," Giro crooned sweetly as he softly cupped his hands on Vent's face, "When I first saw you, you could have fit in the palm of my hand. You and her… so tiny… so scared..."

"Giro..." Prairie warned in a low tone, as if she were reminding him of something. Girouette looked over at her and gave her a smile.

"Are you afraid of something commander?" he teased before turning back to Vent. "Don't ever listen to what Model Z tells you Vent, you're the perfect match for Model X."

Suddenly, Vent got a flashback to the girl earlier that had called him Prea.

"What if… what if there was someone else?" Vent asked. "What if I'm not... the only one that could be a perfect match?"

"There is no one else." Girouette rebutted with a shake of his head. "It's impossible."

Vent stood up straight, backing himself away from his caretaker by a fraction. In a bold movement, Vent would later come to regret the words that came out of his mouth next; "I'm sure Crea would have been a perfect match too; wouldn't she Giro?"

. . .

"Prea… where do I know that name Rush?" Aile questioned, more to herself than the sleeping dog beside her. The afternoon proved to be a hot one, and the mugginess of it all was very tiring. There was a nice breeze coming through, and the cars coming by seemed to be as tired as she was. The view was very nice from here, so relaxing and calming on the hot day. If she would just tilt over just a bit more from where she was sitting, she would start to fall head first into the water- likely to her death.

Over-1 used to take her here. Her mind struggled to remember what he looked like now, but she could always remember his name at least. He had done a lot of things to take care of her before Rush came along. He helped her get food, he found her places to sleep, he would protect her from Mavericks in the outer areas of the country (which they traversed quite a bit, if she remembered correctly), and he would stand behind her as she sat exactly were she was now. If she had tried to nod off, Over-1 grudgingly sat down next to her so she could lay her head down for a small nap. Aile couldn't remember exactly if he ever told her stories about things, or if she imagined them later on.

The stories, she knew, were about a girl. The girl's birth had been predicted nearly a hundred years before, and she died at a young age due to a jealous Reploid. The girl was then reborn as the mama, no… Mother, yes, that's what it was, and yearned to be able to touch and to experience things once more from when she was alive. But then Mother had been used against her will by someone she trusted, and eventually an old legend came to shut her down. It came off as a really bad and dissatisfying fairy tale, but there was enough to hint that it had all happened before. Aile believed it happened because it made sense.

Rush slowly started to stir from his sleep, then picked his ears up as if he had heard something. Aile wasn't sure of what- there wasn't even traffic on the highway anymore. The wolf-dog raised his nose up in the air to smell something that he did not like, this was when Aile started to get suspicious.

"What's wrong Rush?" she asked him. The wolf-dog didn't didn't respond to her directly, instead looking behind her and growled. Confused, Aile turned around and nearly screamed in surprise as someone roughly took hold of her wrist, then dangled her over the edge of the highway.

"Found you Mega Man." the one that grabbed her declared menacingly. It was a male Reploid dressed in dark armor colored purple and grey, a scythe was in his opposite hand.

"What a cute little puppy..." someone else said near, Aile craned her neck around to see a female Reploid, dressed a bit more extravagant than the other, her armor was colored white and light blue. The female was picking up Rush -who did not like her at all, and was trying to bite her- until she did something that made sparks surround the wolf-dog, and he went limp in the Reploid girl's arms.

"Rush!" Aile exclaimed in terror. "No!"

The male Reploid holder her tightened his grip, making Aile squeak from the surprise pain.

"Where's the Biometal?" he demanded.

"I don't know what you're talking about!" Aile declared. She wanted to get out of his grasp, but she didn't want to plummet over the side of the highway either.

"Yes you do!" he insisted. "You MegaMerged with Biometal Model X earlier! Where did you put it? Is the Red Mega Man holding it for you, is that it? Tell me you disgusting worm!"

"I don't know!" Aile desperately insisted. "I don't know what you're talking about!"

"Wait Prometheus..." the female Reploid softly spoke up, "I don't think she's the one."

"What do you mean?!" the male Reploid snapped, swinging Aile around so she was no longer dangling over the edge. As relieved as she was, she was still in danger.

"It was a boy, not a girl." the female calmly denoted. "Besides, J- she said a boy would be with the Red Mega Man."

The female Reploid then looked at Aile with piercing red-pink eyes that immediately sent a shiver down the girl's back. To Aile's horror, the female Reploid started to move toward her. Rush still in the female Reploid's arms; she was absentmindedly stroking him, just faintly reminding Aile of a witch and her nasty black cat.

"Get off of me!" Aile demanded once more in futility. The female Reploid slowly inched closer to Aile, getting a better look at the human as if in decision.

"However… they could be siblings..." the female Reploid decided with a tilt of her head.

"She never mentioned another." the male Reploid growled with an annoyed undertone. "She never would have lied to you either, of all people."

"I don't recall ever asking." the female Reploid mused, albeit rather sadly. "I had so many things though, so many things to ask..."

"Griping and moaning about it isn't going to change the past Pandora." the male Reploid snapped. "What are we going to do with this one?"

The female Reploid gave a decisive little sound as she looked Aile over once more. "Maybe..." the female Reploid slowly decided, "She can be bait."

Aile went pale before the male Reploid knocked her out cold with the back of his scythe.


	7. Something to Worry About

Vent could just barely remember that last time he had gotten sick. He was about four at the time, and the virus he received was a widespread one- even Juno got it. In fact, all of the human staff at Giro Express got the virus. Vent remembered bunking in Juno's room while the two got better, they both had really high fevers, but Juno kept squirming away from him because she swore that his feet were colder than a dead man's body.

Despite Giro Express being cut more than half of staff from leave, Girouette still came every hour on the dot to check on them. Vent remembered that his fever started to break far before Juno's did, and he was able to get back to working not long after that. Juno had to still be in bed far after he was allowed to get up, and maybe from a forged memory Vent overheard Muguet tell Giro that Juno's condition was getting worse. That was when Giro came to see Juno every ten minutes; it had gotten so bad that his boss even _refused_ deliveries. The word 'death' was never said around him, but its reminder lingered throughout the transport service like an airborne virus. Everything, it seemed, was wrong then.

It was that night Vent learned what the word 'worry' meant. Of course, that didn't mean he'd never heard the word before; the adults were always telling themselves to 'not worry' about things Vent himself didn't quite understand. He took the phrase to mean the same as 'break a leg' or 'good luck,' just little bits of encouragement adults gave each other because they needed it. Turned out, it had a much broader meaning than just encouragement.

Waiting six hours for Girouette to properly reboot made the boy worry. It made him worry that his boss wouldn't completely recuperate (he wasn't in the right mind beforehand, and Prairie didn't specifically say that it was part of the transference), and then he worried that when Giro did get better, he was going to punish Vent for what he had said. The boy flinched every time he remembered Giro's reaction to a moment of smart-assery that Vent was bound and determined that he could not control. The look on his boss's face could have stopped traffic in Cinq Ville from up in the sky, it would have made a ripe tomato look pale in comparison, it was nothing Vent had never seen before on his caretaker's face; what Vent didn't know was that Giro had only faced one of his demons that morning. The other was something that Girouette would never forgive himself for, ever.

"Are you alright?" Vent asked his boss after exactly six hours were over. Girouette sat up on the medical cot and gave his charge a warm smile.

"Yes, I think so. Thank you Vent."

"Hey… Giro…" Vent then started to say, sheepishly looking down at the floor, "About earlier..."

"Don't worry about it Vent." Girouette assured, even placing a calm hand on Vent's shoulder. "I… actually kinda deserved it."

"No you didn't Boss!" argued Vent, getting out of Giro's grip. "I stepped out of line and-"

"Vent, if anyone seriously needs to apologize today, it's me." Girouette asserted. His tone was growing darker. "I've lied too much to you in the past. I need to… I need to tell you something."

"W-what?"

Giro took a long exhale before starting to say something, but was cut off by emergency alarms.

"Mavericks detected in Area D!" an announcer proclaimed through the intercom system, "Mission objectives will be relayed on arrival. Move out and await further orders. I repeat! Mavericks detected in Area D! Mission objectives will by relayed on arrival. Move out and await further orders."

Girouette frowned. "Area D..." he thought to himself. "That's next to the Slither Inc office. Come on, Vent, we're going to see if the commander needs help."

Vent nodded and the two paced to the command room. Prairie had already been in ordering mode as she went from intercom to intercom telling other Guardians on how to proceed before turning to Giro and Vent. Her rather cheerful and cute personality from before was completely gone now- she was serious, dead serious, and it did not look good on her. Vent felt like he was looking at a completely different person now.

"The enemy is on the move." Prairie informed them, even her tone was different now. It surprised Vent, but Giro seemed rather unfazed.

"'Enemy?'" Giro repeated with a raise of his eyebrow. "They're not just random outbreaks?"

Prairie gave a stiff nod. "During the clean up of Areas A and B, the crew found a chip that we ended up running through our database. It gave us enough information to raise the Maverick outbreaks from implied, to programmed."

"There's a difference?" Vent wondered, looking up at Giro for confirmation.

"Implied Maverick outbreaks mean that one has gone Maverick due to a wiring or connection problem." Girouette informed Vent without looking at him. "Programmed Maverick outbreaks mean that someone else is behind them, and they have a good chance at being tracked."

"Which leads us to what they're after." Prairie continued.

Coming in at perfect time, an announcement came in through the command room's speakers, "Ground forces reporting! Maverick activity has picked up in Area D, we have begun to open fire on any Mavericks on sight. We have also confirmed the possible capture of a human girl- roughly fourteen years old, short brown hair, and green eyes."

Vent grew pale. "Crea..."

"Could you repeat the last line once more Maquereau." Prairie requested into a microphone- her tone dangerous and low.

"We have also confirmed the possible capture of a human girl- if eye witnesses are to believed, she is of roughly fourteen years of age, has short brown hair, and green eyes. She was accompanied by a red Reploid wolf-dog who was also abducted at the scene. We have not been told of any demands from the captors thus far. Would you like us to stand by for further relay?"

"Treble..." Vent trembled as he slowly started to back away. "No!"

Turning on his heel, Vent started to run out of the command room to the transerver.

"Vent!" Prairie snapped at him, "Where do you think you're going?!"

Vent turned around to face Giro and Prairie, feeling as if he were either going to pass out or throw up. "I can help them if I use the Biometal!" the boy declared. Every part of his body was shaking. He could barely see straight for all it was worth.

Girouette stepped forward. "Think Vent!" his mentor told him, it wasn't in a harsh tone but it seemed just as scared as Vent appeared to be. "That Biometal is exactly what they want! You'll play right into their hands if you go out there to save her!"

Vent looked down at the floor for a moment before looking back up at his caretaker. "Twice I thought I would never see her again, I'm not going to let that happen again." After this, Vent slowly backed to the door, then ran to the transerver room without looking behind him.

"Vent!" Prairie called out to him, although she knew it was too late. Giro's expression had become hard and unreadable.

"Why won't he ever _listen_?!" the Reploid demanded before running behind Vent to catch up to him.

. . .

Most of whatever possessed him back at Guardian HQ had worn off after Merging with Model X again. Merging with the Biometal was like receiving a well loved hug from your favorite relative. If he had been in a better mood, Vent would have felt lightheaded and empowered. For now though, he was just glad that his limbs weren't shaking as if he were cold.

"Hold on Vent!" Girouette called from behind him. Vent turned around and saw Giro once again Merged with Model Z. Suddenly, Vent felt guilty again.

"Boss, I..."

"I'm not going to try and stop you." Girouette told him sincerely. "But I'm not going to let you rescue her alone. I'll scout up ahead to make sure the path is as clear for you as I can make it. Are you sure that your head will be level by then?"

Vent nodded. Girouette didn't seem as sure, and he placed both his hands on Vent's shoulders for the two of them to look directly in the eye.

"Vent," his caretaker then told him, "There are times when you can _not_ hesitate to pull the trigger. These guys will _kill_ you if you give them the opportunity. Do you understand how critical it is that you keep a clear mind while doing this?"

Vent swallowed back dried saliva before giving Giro a confirming, near confident, nod. "I want to protect her." Vent said. "I want to protect everyone."

"Good." Giro agreed, allowing himself to sigh contently. Then, in a surprise to both of them, Vent pulled Giro in for a hug. If the boy had known what would happen to his caretaker in the next few minutes, he would have never let go.


	8. Evolution Requires Sacrifice

Fourteen years ago, Girouette believed that he would never see her again and assumed she had died.

Aile was there alright, her hands were tied behind her back and ankles were tied as well to prevent her from running away. Giro didn't have to look far to locate the dog as well; it was being held by one of the three Reploids present and seemed to be disabled for the time being. Knowing that the two seemed alright otherwise, Girouette turned his attention to Aile's abductors. He instantly recognized Serpent, the head of Slither Inc. But the other two Reploids he didn't recognize; something about them did strike a cord in Girouette. But what was it?

"I want my dog back!" the poor girl pleaded.

"Your dog? That's all?!" the younger, male Reploid darkly laughed. "Ha! Pathetic! Is he all you have, you pitiless orphan?"

"Yes!" Aile declared hopelessly. "He's my friend. Ever since Over-1 left, Rush is all I have. Please! I'm begging you!"

The Reploid snickered at her before bending down, pointing the scythe at her neck. "I don't think you've begged enough." he growled at her with a twisted smile. "Let me know if this hurts!"

Girouette promised to himself that he wouldn't get into a major fight until Vent came, but this was dire.

"Let the girl go." Girouette demanded, pointing the zetsaber at the three Reploids. "And her dog."

The Reploids slowly turned their attention to him. Two of them were physically not much older than Aile, it seemed, and they seemed awfully familiar too. The girl Reploid in particular seemed to make Giro remember someone, but who?

"Don't I know you?" Girouette asked curiously to the younger looking Reploids. They paused for a moment before the female Reploid spoke up.

"Juno." she announced carefully, articulating every syllable as if it were a song. A whole range of clarity filled Girouette when he realized who they were.

"You met him before?" Serpent inquired to the younger Reploids, not out of curiosity, but more of wanting to be in the loop.

"Not in the flesh." the young male Reploid snickered. "But we've heard stories; too many of them in fact. How do you think we knew he was the Red Mega Man? We had more than enough help identifying him beforehand."

"She only gave you that information because she trusted you." Girouette darkly told him, who then shrugged as if it were nothing. Serpent was starting to grow annoyed.

"Enough talking," he demanded, picking Aile up roughly by the elbow, making the girl give a small yelp of surprise. "I need the password for Model Z immediately, and if harming this child is how I'm going to get it out of you, then so be it!"

Girouette took stance to fight. "Not if I have my way with it." he smoothly declared before leading the first attack. Now if only the rest of the fight could have gone in his favor…

. . .

Vent's timing was either too late, or just in time. Girouette had fallen, face down on the pavement and not giving a sign of life. Near him, Vent knew, was Crea, who wasn't responsive either. A deactivated Treble was in the arms of a young looking Reploid girl; she was sitting calmly on some staff thing that looked like a rather large magical girl wand.

"Ah, you've come." a voice said in front of Vent, snapping him out of thoughts. "Model X, the blue Mega Man. It's time to see you in action."

Vent looked up at the speaker as he did something kind of command and Giro started to shift. Slowly standing up on shaking legs, Vent noticed with horror that Girouette's eyes were blood red.

"Stay… away…" Girouette said to Vent in a worn, broken voice, "It's a trap..."

Vent shook his head as he slowly raised the buster. He couldn't fire- he just couldn't.

"Vent…!" Girouette shouted in desperation, "Shoot me!"

Before Vent could give a rebuttal, Giro attacked him. Barely dodging, Vent started to charge the buster and waited for the right time before taking the shot. It succeeded in harming Giro, but it did not stop him. Vent continued this pattern regardless -charging his shots then waiting for a chance to shoot- and eventually Girouette desisted.

"C-come on Boss..." Vent said to his caretaker, sounding more like he was praying, "Let's go home. Let's… let's see if Juno came back home."

Girouette didn't even have time to look up before being stuck down by a bolt of lightning, falling back to the ground like a rag doll. Confused, weary, and annoyed from fighting, Vent looked up at the three Reploids who had just sat there, watching them fight.

"Who are you?!" Vent demanded. The tallest and oldest looking of the three stepped forward.

"The name is Serpent." he introduced to Vent in the least of friendly tones. "I rule all that lies before me. I am the Model W Mega Man!"

"Serpent…?! You're head of Slither Inc.!" Vent remarked with a small amount of shock.

"I see my reputation precedes me." Serpent agreed with a snide smirk. "You'd do well to remember me, Blue Mega Man!"

Vent raised the buster at Serpent, his aim was shaking but the intent was clear. "You're the cause of the Mavericks," Vent related, his voice shaking too, "You kidnapped Crea, and… and you did something to Boss!"

"You're shaking..." the girl Reploid spoke up, her tone teasing him in some way. "Is it anger… Or fear?"

"At least the red one was more of a challenge than this one." the other male Reploid snickered. Vent immediately aimed the buster at this Reploid and fired. The Reploid yawned as he used his scythe to deflect the shot back at Vent- evidently, charged shots hurt a lot, as it seems.

"Chosen Ones like us, who can control the Biometal's M.E.G.A. System and transform, we are called Mega Men." Serpent then told Vent. "The chosen few are the shepherds for guiding the flock into a new world. But you've proven with your pathetic abilities that not all Mega Men are fit to rule." Then with a casual wave of his hand, Serpent summoned a lightning bolt to strike Vent. A surprise attack to be sure, causing Model X to separate from Vent without notice; all too quickly Vent found that Model X was able to withstand much more damage than what the boy could, now demerged, the pain was so overwhelming the Vent screamed. Serpent was unfazed by this, and instead turned to the girl with Treble.

"Pull the password data out of them." he demanded.

"Understood." the girl agreed with a nod, standing up to gingerly place Treble on the ground then turning to get her staff. She raised the thing and two pieces from her helmet detached to float over to Vent and Girouette.

"That was far too easy." the young male Reploid said to Serpent, sounding highly displeased and bored. "What should we do with them?"

"Leave them to the Mavericks and carry on as you were." Serpent told him with an absent wave. "A battle between the evil Mavericks and the good Slither Inc security force. Classic. We need the facade of peace to continue on just a little bit longer. Eventually they will all become glorious sacrifices for Model W."

"Password retrieval complete." the girl Reploid softly declared as her helmet part reattached. Serpent let out a confident chuckle.

"Now we have all the passwords." he remarked with a pleased smirk. "Let's go. It's time to proceed with Project Haven."

With that, Serpent teleported out. But the other two Reploids remained behind. The girl calmly walked back over to Treble, and was about to pick him up before the guy Reploid stopped her.

"You're not seriously going to take that thing with you, are you?" he asked her, sounding accusatory and bitter.

"We can reprogram it." the girl Reploid offered. "It could help us find her."

The guy Reploid took the girl roughly by the wrist. He looked her directly in the eyes and said, "She's dead," in a low, skin-crawling tone. The girl Reploid's face dropped immediately.

"W… what…?"

The guy Reploid's expression did not change as they teleported out together. With them gone, Girouette started to groan as he rolled his body over.

"Boss!" Vent exclaimed happily despite the pain paralyzing his body, "You're awake!"

But Giro didn't speak to Vent. "Model Z, listen…" Girouette started to say, in his own fair amount of pain. "Don't worry… about me..."

' _Do you know what you're asking?_ ' Model Z questioned, its tone on the edge of sounding incredibly worried, ' _Your body is already beyond recovery. Unlike the last time, if you transform back here, you will not survive the wounds._ '

Giro gave a small, pained chuckle. "I have… fought... my demons. Please… lend your strength… to Vent."

The Biometal was silent for several moments. ' _Alright,_ ' the thought-speak finally resounded, ' _I will._ '

As the Biometal prepared to demerge, Girouette looked over at Vent, giving him the same loopsided smile he gave him earlier. "Vent..." Giro softly said, in that same calm tone he always had, "Be strong..."

Vent then watched on in horror as Model Z separated from Giro. The Reploid closed his eyes as an orb not much larger than a marble slowly started to extract from his body. The little orb created a small aura around Girouette's body, causing it to dissipate into air. After this, the little orb calmly floated away with the wind. There he went, Girouette's soul, to a place where Vent would never see him again…

As if to rub salt into their wounds, a pack of Galleons started to circle the pathetic troupe.

' _Vent,_ ' Model X then announced softly, like a father soothing his child, ' _This is your only chance. If you combine the powers of Model Z and I, you should be able to MegaMerge again. I'm not sure if you can handle the strain that will come after, but you shouldn't let Giro's sacrifice go to waste either._ '

' _It's your decision. You alone must take it._ ' Model Z both affirmed and disagreed, ' _Do you have the will to fight? Do you have what it takes to continue where this brave man left off?_ '

The Galleons were closer now, and were preparing to aim their gun busters at Vent. Groaning, Vent looked over to Treble and the girl. They needed his help. Other folks who weren't as lucky needed his help too.

It was then that Vent decided what to do.

"Model X… Model Z..." he commanded, holding a hand out to them, "I need your power. I need to protect Crea, and Treble, and… and everyone! Give me the strength I need to fight for those I care about!"

Responding instantly, the two Biometals began to glow brighter than Vent had ever seen- Model X was the first to come to Vent, ramming into his open palm with enough force that threw the boy to his side, allowing Model Z quick access to ram into Vent's other hand. The Biometals then started to work together, fusing with each other and Vent to create a new armor.

A memory, a faint one, but a memory nonetheless, flashed in Vent's mind; "You should come with me to Neo Arcadia," the memory said to him, "I'll give you new powers, and a new body..." but that new body hurt. It made them do things, see things differently, that they didn't like. And then they were destroyed by…

Meanwhile, Rush was starting to come back online after getting out of Pandora's grip. Sparking slightly, the forever diligent wolf-dog made his way over to Aile, much to her relief.

"Rush..." Aile mumbled as the dog took hold of her vest with his mouth and dragged her a short distance away, preventing her from getting caught in the extreme charge from the Biometals merging. It was enough that the Galleons surrounding them were shredded down to nothing from the sheer force of the Biometals' merging.

' _Vent,_ ' Model X spoke when the merge had been complete, ' _Our strength…_ '

' _Is now yours._ ' Model Z finished. ' _Girouette's spirit is also within you._ '

"I'll make Serpent pay for what he's done today!" Vent declared. "But first..."

Vent turned around to locate Crea and Treble. That dog looked pretty ferocious for something that was much lower than Vent's knee. Upon seeing him though, that ferociousness melted away instantly into the personality Vent knew truly belonged to the wolf-dog. Vent bent down to be at eye level with Treble and was greeted with lots of slobbery dog kisses. But the boy wasn't in the mood to play, or have time to feel proud of the Double MegaMerge.

"Can you take Crea to the transerver?" Vent asked. The wolf-dog smiled up at him, wagging his tail eagerly, and gave a confirming bark. Vent smiled at the wolf-dog before giving him a good scratch behind the ear. "Thanks boy!" he said gratefully before standing back up. "Now to finish off Serpent."


	9. Through Closed Doors

Vent was in hot pursuit of the Slither Inc airship before Prairie tried to create a communication link.

"Vent, it's not safe out there." Prairie snapped at him, however hard she tried to be comforting. "You need to come back to HQ for repairs. There's a logical way of going about this, and just charging after Serpent isn't going to be that way."

Vent kept pursuing the airship, even though he was starting to lose sight of it. "Prairie, let me fight!" Vent demanded. "I have to protect Crea! I have to avenge Boss! I have to… I have to protect everyone! Every… every single one!"

"I have information that you need to see." Prairie told him. "And if you dare bring another person to the transerver that looks like you instead, so help me Vent, I'll find a way to turn you into a Cyber Elf!"

This made the boy pause for a moment.

' _Is that even possible?_ ' Model X wondered, finding her statement both horrifying and mystifying.

' _Given his circumstances, it should be a fairly simple extraction._ ' Model Z decided.

Vent thought over this some more. The airship was completely gone now, and he had no way of tracking it either. Feeling as if he were admitting defeat, Vent went to the nearest transerver and reported to HQ.

The boy didn't even bother to demerge from Model X and Model Z before walking into the command room. Prairie saw him, and she held a stern look for a moment or so before it melted away into one of sympathetic origins.

"Vent..." she started to say, unsure of where to begin.

"I'm fine." the boy told her, albeit stubbornly. "And that girl with her dog, they're fine too. I can't just sit around while Serpent plans on hurting everyone. He said he would sacrifice the entire country to wake Model W. I have to keep fighting. We need to find a way to stop Serpent. That's why Boss gave me Model Z, because he knew that I could help.

Prairie was silent for a few moments before relenting. "Alright..." she agreed, before recomposing herself into her authoritative Prairie persona. "We analyzed the data and discovered some things of value. The biggest being that Model W has the power to corrupt machine and human alike. This is what caused the current Maverick outbreaks. But Serpent only has a fragment of Model W now. The Model W Core is still lying dormant somewhere, waiting to be awoken. I'm not sure what this Project Haven is that Serpent mentioned, but it could be a part of him trying to wake Model W."

"Where's the Model W Core now?" Vent asked curiously.

"I'm not sure..." Prairie admitted with a shake of her head. "Some of the data was corrupt and we couldn't complete the analysis. What I _do_ know is that the six passwords encoded into the Biometals are the keys. Combined, they will unlock the seal that contains the core. I managed to get Model X and Model Z first..."

"But Serpent already has the other four." Vent finished, his mind wondering into a deep set of thought. "We don't have much of a choice. We have to fight and take them back ourselves!"

Prairie gave Vent a funny look before turning to sit down into the commander chair, and began to type something into the computer console.

"I'm going to simulate the data and narrow down the Biometal locations using the Maverick signatures." Prairie then informed him from over her shoulder. "Once I get a mission plan together, I'll call you back for further details."

"Hey Prairie..." Vent then started to say. The Guardian's commander looked up from the computer and swung her chair back around to look at Vent.

"Yes?" she asked, looking back at him with a rather relaxed expression.

"How is… How is that girl doing?" Vent inquired. "And the dog that was with her. What's their current condition?"

"Stable." Prairie assured him with a humble nod. "The girl received some minor burns from the Double MegaMerge, but other than that, she and the dog should recover completely in the next twenty-four hours."

"Am I allowed to see her?"

Prairie shook her head. "Muguet insists that the girl is to have no visitors until she has woken up." she informed him with a solemn tone. "She said she may allow visitors tomorrow afternoon, but she didn't seem too attached on the idea."

"Oh..." was the answer, as Vent shyly kicked a bit of the ground. Prairie never noticed it before, but Vent almost seemed to be really out of place in the ZX armor. At least, without that cocky confidence he normally had. Thinking of something from the past, Prairie had to stop herself before she gave herself the creeps.

"It's been a long day Vent." Prairie started to offered, "How about you use one of the dorms next to the medical room to sleep in tonight? I'm sure Muguet will open it to you if you ask."

"Thanks Prairie." Vent agreed, smiling up at her -no longer looking like a lost boy in an overpowered mecha suit- before leaving the commander room. Prairie gave a small smile and went back to her computer. After some time, she looked over at her stuffed cat and sighed heavily.

"Vent's not the one who's lost..." the Reploid girl said to herself. "What was Sis thinking...?"

. . .

Aile woke up the next morning in the worst of positions; propped up against the door of the medical room with Rush licking her face with no retaliation.

"Rush stop!" the girl demanded, attempting to push him off, but the wolf-dog was persistent. To her surprise, on the other side of the door someone said,

"You're awake now?"

Aile froze. She recognized that voice, didn't she?

"You're that jerk that stole my dog." Aile realized, turning herself around so she looked directly at the door. "Were you planning on taking him again once I woke up. Is that it?"

"What?! No!" the voice on the other end claimed, sounding appalled that she even thought that. "When I think of it, I don't even know why I'm here right now. I went to sleep in the room next door, not at the door."

"Right." Aile huffed with an eye roll. "His name is Rush by the way- I noticed that you kept calling him Treble during all the junk from yesterday."

"I think Treble suited him better." the voice on the other end told her, making a small sound that indicated that he had smirked at her. Hearing it annoyed her.

"And what about you?" she then inquired, sounding a bit more demanding that truly inquisitive. "What's your name?"

"Vent." came the reply. "And you?"

"Aile."

Both ends of the door went silent after this. Aile took a look at Rush, he was looking at the door expectantly with his tail rhythmically beating the floor. Rush seemed eager to meet with this… Vent again. Maybe this time she'd get a good look at him this time without the interference of that meddling dog.

"Do you have a last name?" Aile then inquired. Vent went silent again, but this time in thought.

"Hikari…?" he guessed at first. "No… Sephira? Um… maybe Sephira-Hikari? I don't know- no one really calls me by my last name oddly enough. I think I did have one, but then it fell out of practice from misuse. You know?"

"Yeah..." Aile agreed, laying her head against the door, "I think I do."

As the two went silent again, a small thunk from the other end of the door told Aile that Vent had placed his head against the door as well. Rush calmly made his way into Aile's arms and comforted himself there. As awkward the position was, Aile almost felt like drifting back to sleep.

"What are you doing here?" the voice of the Guardian's nurse questioned Vent from the other side. "Prairie requested to see you ten minutes ago."

"Did she?" Vent asked, making sounds as if he had jumped up quickly. "By the way Muguet, have I told you how lovely you look today?"

"Flattery didn't work with Girouette, and it's not going to work with you." Muguet huffed at Vent. "Now go see Prairie. I need to tend to our guest."

"Yes ma'am..." Vent agreed with a defeated tone before leaving. Aile stood up, and waited for Muguet to open the door. The nurse was more than a little surprised to see Aile just standing there, but she was at ease soon enough. The annoyance from Vent melted away as Muguet gave Aile a kind smile.

"How did you sleep sweetie?" the nurse asked as she led Aile back to the bed.

"Fine I guess." Aile shrugged. "Hey Muguet, can you tell me please- what does Vent look like?"

Muguet seemed to ignore her as the nurse set about getting the instruments needed to perform a physical. As Aile was about to ask again, Muguet finally spoke as she started to take Aile's blood pressure, "Well sweetie, I guess you could say... he looks a lot like... you."


	10. Griffin's Ghost

Working his way over from the highway, Vent continued on a path to the power plant in Area E. He entered the old power plant and nearly felt his hair stand up.

"The plant..." Prairie thought over through his headset, "It's still active and producing energy."

"So?" Vent questioned, half wanting to lean on something to collect his bearings from the energy around him. Even while merged with Model X and Model Z, he could feel it try to suck him in. A faint memory came to him like it had when he had Double MegaMerged- the same haunting memory. An offer, a new body, powerful abilities that they couldn't control...

"According to our database, it has been offline since the Maverick raid." Prairie informed him. There's something fishy going on here. Be careful Vent."

"Always." Vent smiled before going on. Going further in, and following the waves of Mavericks that came in thicker clusters as he ventured, the more Vent started to feel sick to his stomach. Model X started to grow worried.

' _If this mission is too much for you now, you can always choose another._ ' the Biometal offered sympathetically.

"No way!" Vent declared, slashing a Galleon in half. "I feel just as fine as I did when we first stepped in!"

' _Your accuracy has dropped eleven percent since we stepped in._ '

"And what was it before that?"

' _Seventy-three._ '

Vent shrugged this off and continued onward.

' _If it's any consolation,_ ' Model Z then offered, ' _There's a hidden pathway up ahead that may cut some power off. It may reduce the effects you are feeling from the plant's energy._ '

"Thanks!" Vent smiled, continuing onward. In the back of his mind, the boy could imagine the invisible glare Model X had given Model Z in degradation. To which, Vent could easily see, Model Z shrugging with indifference. If the kid wants to keep going…

After finding the room Model Z spoke of and turned that generator off, Vent went further on and came to a room filled with glass chambers. In those chambers here hundreds of small orbs of light trapped inside. Vent looked at the chambers and found himself drawn to them instantly. They were so… familiar, but from where?

"P-Prairie…?" Vent muttered into the headset, attempting to raise the Guardian's commander, "Could you… explain this…?"

"This signature..." Prairie started to say, before letting out a gasp so alarming that Vent jumped, "Cyber Elves?!"

"Cyber Elves?" Vent repeated, admitting that it sounded a bit familiar. "What were those again?"

"Sentient programs created with pure energy and made in the image of elves." she informed him, starting to sound bitter. "I don't understand why there are so many of them here. Unless..."

Prairie gave a rather inhuman growl that Vent nearly had the inclination to end the comm-link there.

"That power plant..." she then told Vent, her anger seething quite clearly, "It's using the Cyber Elves to generate the power!"

"So that's the secret behind this place." Vent mumbled to himself, looking at the Cyber Elves no less mystified than earlier.

"Unbelievable!" Pairie continued, outraged at this point. "Cyber Elves are all sentient beings just like the rest of us! Vent, please, you must shut down that power plant!"

Fleetingly, Vent imagined Prairie up on a soapbox advocating for Cyber Elf rights. It seemed about right. The grand commander Prairie, with a picket sign in one hand and a megaphone is the other, raving about Cyber Elf rights and their desire to live like a Baptist preacher pounding on his pulpit with conviction. He could see her, watching over two certain Cyber Elves, and talking to them, teaching them to sing and interact and…

"Vent!" Prairie snapped, pulling Vent out of his daydream. "Get going!"

"Right, right- I'm going!" he replied diligently before continuing on.

He looked everywhere inside the plant, but couldn't find anything of value until he took the back exit. The light from outside was different, too harsh, forcing Vent to shield his eyes for them to adjust. A figure sitting on something ahead of him moved, landing with grace in front of him. Vent blinked as he focused on a green Reploid-like… thing.

"Well, well..." the thing said to Vent with a smug undertone, "It looks like you found the skeleton in our closet. That is… unfortunate, for you. Now I can't let you leave here in one piece."

Vent tightened his grip on his saber, taking a subconscious stance to start attacking. "You're one of the Mavericks that Serpent is controlling." the boy related with a distant voice.

"You've done your research." the thing smirked. "It looks like I can skip introductions then. However, make no mistake, I'm not just a simple puppet like those other Mavericks; I'm an artificial Mega Man created to draw out the power of the Biometal. I, in particular, am the Model H Pseudoroid, Hivolt. Have no fear… it'll all be over soon. You'll just feel a little jolt before you sleep forever!"

With a cackle, Hivolt charged toward Vent. The boy jumped out of the way and aimed a buster round at the Pseudoroid's wings. Hivolt reacted to the buster round with surprise, but Vent knew that he had found his weak spot. Taking this information on in strides and not thinking of any consequences, Vent continued with this strategy until Hivolt fell to the ground.

"Hah..." Hivolt snorted, glaring up at Vent with bitter disdain. "The energy here is already well on its way to Lord Serpent. All that's left is for him to hack into Model W's Core. Poor misguided fool… Your end draws near as a new age is beginning!"

Cackling maliciously, Hivolt began to combust, forcing Vent to take cover until the debris cleared. Waiting for the dust to settle, Vent walked back over to where Hivolt once stood and saw a green Biometal. At his presence, the Biometal began to glow and hover just slightly above the ground. Vent's mouth curled into a small O as he reached out to the Biometal; like Model X before it, it seemed to recognize him. But this familiarity wasn't as welcoming, but it was a definite recognition.

' _Hello,_ ' the Biometal greeted Vent calmly, ' _I am the Biometal of the Wind, Model H. Thank you for saving me, young hero._ '

"Lend me your strength, Model H." Vent requested, cupping it in his hands gently. "I have to find the passwords and destroy the Model W Core before it harms the world!"

' _Do you think that will end this?_ '

Vent was taken aback by this question. "What do you mean?" the boy questioned.

' _All of this started by a single man. Even if you destroy the Model W Core and stop Serpent… who's to say that another madman won't rise up with the intent to watch the world burn?_ '

Vent looked down, unsure of what to say. Model H sensed this and found itself partially surprised at the boy's reaction. He wasn't the same as before…

' _I will lend you my strength._ ' Model H eventually agreed. ' _However, Serpent has separated the data I need to remember my password. There is another Pseudoroid with the other part. If you can defeat it, then I will be able to give you my password._ '

"Thank you." Vent mumbled under his breath, tucking the Biometal into a pocket before heading toward the transerver. Once at Guardian HQ, Vent demerged and went to Fleuve.

"You really did a number on that poor Biometal, didn't you?" the short Guardian said, scratching the back of his head as he looked over Model H. "It almost looks like it got the brunt of the attack..."

"All I did was hit the Pseudoroid at his weak spot." Vent told the Guardian defensively.

"Then, apparently, a Pseudoroid's weak spot is where the Biometal connected to it is. I'm really going to need a lot of E-crystals to get this poor thing in better condition..."

Feeling guilty, Vent could even feel the heated glare Model H felt like giving him. Why didn't it tell him that sooner?!

"If I have enough E-crystals, how long do you think it will take to repair Model H?" Vent then inquired to Fleuve.

"Not long." the short Guardian answered. "The previous commander trained me to care after the Biometals; it's become second nature by now."

"Good." Vent smiled. "While you fix Model H, do you think Muguet will let anyone see Aile now?"

Fleuve looked up at a clock on the wall, then looked back at Vent with a nod. "She should." he agreed. "It's nearly twelve thirty."

"Great!" Vent declared, spinning on his heel to head out the door, "Thanks Fleuve!"

Wonderfully giddy for the first time in awhile, Vent raced to the medical room's door. Just coming out was Muguet, leading Vent to stop just inches from the nurse.

"Hello Muguet." Vent sang cheerfully. "My gosh, you look so beautiful today! Did you get a haircut? No… let me guess… You finally took that yoga class, right?"

Muguet wasn't buying his shtick one bit, but she knew what he wanted. "Ten minutes Vent." the nurse warned him. "Commander Prairie requested that I take a blood sample of our new friend for health reasons. And I _mean_ ten minutes, understand?"

Vent gave a solemn salute before happily rushing past Muguet to get inside the room. Greeted by Rush, Vent laughed as he tried to walk closer to Aile on the bed with the wolf-dog in his face.

"For the love of _light_ Rush, just get off of him!" Aile demanded. Rush turned to give a cheerful bark of agreement before hopping off the bed and landing safely on the ground. Letting out a little laugh at the creature, Vent turned his attention to Aile as she did the same thing.

The two only gave each other one look before their eyes grew wide. Moving in sync, the two leaned closer to each other before letting out a mystified, "What… the… hell..."


	11. Inheritance

Muguet must have allowed Vent more than ten minutes, because it seemed to have been much longer than that. Still staring at each other, Vent and Aile gaped at each other with enough astonishment that could be felt all though HQ.

"You have my eyes!" they both said together. Then they declared, "You have my hair!" and then "You have my clothes!"

Vent was the first to recoil from their shock and put on a smug smirk. "My skin's darker than yours, therefore, I look more like him than you do." he bragged. Aile retaliated with an annoyed scoff.

"At least I don't butt into things like that stupid lycan!" she spat back. But then she paused and considered something for a moment. "Do you even know who we're talking about?" she asked slowly.

"Nope!" Vent declared with a shake of his head. "No clue whatsoever."

"Just like how I called you Prea..."

"And how I called you Crea."

The two then stared at each other again. "Who are you?" they both asked each other at the same time.

"Mass fire outbreak in Area G!" the announcement system suddenly declared. "All first responders are to be dispatched immediately. I repeat! Mass fire outbreak in Area G! All first responders are to be dispatched immediately."

"That's an apartment complex..." Vent said to himself. He then turned his attention to Aile. "I'm gonna see if Prairie needs help." he then told her. "A fire should be no problem for the Wind Mega Man!"

"Vent, please come see Commander Prairie immediately." the announcer then declared for them. "I repeat; Vent, please come see Commander Prairie immediately."

"I guess that solves that." Vent snickered as he started to get up. "I'll be back Aile. But first..."

Vent dug out Model Z out of his picket and handed it to Aile. She almost immediately tried to give it back. "You'll need it." she reasoned. But Vent shook his head.

"I'll just need Model H for this, I can feel it." he told her, making her cup Model Z in her hands and keeping it there. "Even if I did, I could just merge with just Model X for distance attacks. I doubt you'll do anything to Model Z while I'm gone."

"But… Giro gave him to you." Aile pointed out. "That's kinda rude."

"And I trust you to take care of him for me until I get back." Vent rebutted, making sure to be the one to laugh last. "Boss used Model Z to protect the both of us, maybe if you had been in my place, he would have tried to give Model Z to you too."

"You figure?"

"I believe it." Vent affirmed.

"Vent!" Prairie herself snapped angrily from over the speakers. Vent flinched out of habit at her voice, due to it sounding a lot like Giro's. Giving Aile a swift salute good bye, the boy rushed to the command center and presented himself to a very unhappy looking Prairie.

Vent took one look at her and put on his best, extra polite smile. "My gosh Prairie, you look so beautiful when you're angry." he said to her, almost sounding genuine.

"If you think that, I'll be pretty damn gorgeous in the next few minutes." she spat at him. Never once hearing an authority use such strong language before, Vent stood a bit straighter.

"What happened?" he then asked, starting to get into a more serious mood.

"The fire in Area G was no mistake," Prairie informed him, "It was the result of Mavericks coming in from response to a Biometal near by. I need you to help the Guardians get everyone out of that apartment building and track down the Biometal. Got it?"

"Yes ma'am!" Vent agreed before darting to the transerver room.

. . .

Meanwhile, Aile lay reclined on the medical cot as Muguet drew her blood. Model Z floated next to her, with a curious Rush sniffing at it to decide whether it was safe enough for Aile.

"Almost done." Muguet told Aile eventually. The nurse made a quick look at Model Z, but then darted her eyes back to Aile as if looking at it was taboo. "I see Vent gave you the Biometal."

Aile nodded, but did not answer. Muguet gave the girl a little glance before carefully finishing up the blood draw.

"I'll be able to tell you if you have any abnormalities in your blood in about an hour," the nurse then told the girl as the cleaned up the injection point and her other equipment, "Is that alright?"

Aile looked at the nurse and gave a small nod. Interested as to why the child decided to be silent now, Muguet gave a small smile as she left to run tests on Aile's blood. With her gone, Aile sat up a bit more and looked at Model Z.

"You know something I don't." she said to it, not in a dark tone, but it certainly wasn't trusting. "You're hiding something, aren't you?"

The Biometal did not answer her at first. Eventually, it did give in.

' _Crea._ ' Model Z started, ' _I remember you as more of the dominant between the two of you._ '

"Well that's funny, because I don't remember you at all." Aile retaliated, sitting up a bit straighter.

' _It should be for the best then. There are many things that I have done that can not be forgiven._ '

Aile recoiled a bit. The Biometal sounded so… sad. It had no right to be that way, not when it had saved her and Vent from those Mavericks yesterday.

"Don't talk like that!" she told it, scrunching her nose with disbelief. "Everyone deserves a second chance, even if they think they don't need it. Just look at Rush- he treats second chances like they're Scooby Snacks!"

Model Z made a sound that resembled a light sigh. ' _You really are like him._ ' he then remarked rather calmly. ' _So much optimism, it's nearly infectious._ '

"Who?" Aile asked, now feeling a bit confused. "Vent...? Giro?"

' _No, no. Someone else._ ' Model Z claimed. ' _Someone from an older, more unstable ISO. Model X isn't the only one prone to falling back on them._ '

' _I wonder…_ ' the Biometal then thoughtfully decided, ' _Aile, hold me with your left hand. I'm going to see if you and I can summon one of my weapons without completely merging._ '

"What if I'm left handed?" Aile teased with a smirking smile that would not have been out of place on Vent.

' _Well, are you then?_ ' the Biometal impatiently questioned, ' _If that's the case, hold me with your right hand instead. There is always more than one way to skin a cat._ '

Laughing a little, Aile took the Biometal in her left hand and held it firmly. The Biometal then started to emit a low glow as something started to appear in Aile's open hand. Carefully, that thing materialized into an older designed hand buster. Aile looked at it with a new found sense of amazement; Rush didn't find it as exciting, and bounded off and under the cot.

Thinking quickly, Aile aimed the buster at a flower pot and shot at it. Rush let out a fearful yelp as the flower pot shattered into many different pieces.

' _Only three degrees off from the center,_ ' Model Z remarked, even sounding a bit surprised, ' _Not bad._ '

Aile beamed at her inherit skill. Rushing in soon after that, Muguet's assistant Rose came into the room. Model Z almost immediately made the buster dissipate quickly as Rose looked around the room to single down on Aile.

"Are you alright Miss Aile?" Rose questioned nervously. Rose then saw the broken vase, her eyes grew wide as she walked over to it. "Did someone try to attack you?"

"No." Aile smiled. "I found something and tested it out. Speaking of, Rose, do you think Muguet could let me up long enough to take a quick trip to the training room? I had a really brilliant idea."

Rose looked up at Aile with a rather shocked expression. "I can check." the assistant agreed before cleaning up the bits of the vase and scuttling out the door again. Beaming, Aile looked down under the cot and gave Rush a bright smile.

"Come on Rush, it wasn't that bad. I was only off by a few degrees." she laughed. The dog's whimpering gave her the indication that it wasn't going to enjoy her new abilities any time soon. Rose came back right after, giving Aile the go ahead, but warned that she had to be back before her test results came back.

With an ecstatic grin, Aile made her way to the training room to hone on this new found skill some more. Rush followed her, if only to make sure she didn't hurt herself.

. . .

Vent had gotten as many folks out of the apartment complex as he could before heading up to the roof. There waiting was another Pseudoroid- this one was designed rather like a lion.

"All came all this way expecting to find a great warrior, but you are just a boy." the Pseudoroid sneered at Vent. "All this associating with Mavericks and kidnapping people is interfering with my training."

"Kidnapping?" Vent questioned, the word in question nearly making his skin crawl. "What have you done with everyone?!"

"I have no need to tell you." the Pseudoroid snarled at him. "Serpent promised me to take me beyond the limits of my training and give me the power of a god if I helped him. It sounded like an excellent proposition. I will do whatever it takes to get power."

"That's not true power!" Vent told the Pseudoroid with an upturned nose. "You can't get it through evil."

The Pseudoroid growled at the boy bitterly. "My Biometal is burning to get a piece of you." it snickered, "The name is Fistleo, I am the Model F Pseudoroid. You are about to find out just how true my power is!"

Vent watched as Fistleo took the first strike then, at the first opening, started to attack back with the aid of Model HX.


	12. Mistake in the System

Muguet looked over the data several times over before heading to the command center. There had to have been a mistake somewhere, and the commander needed to know of the bug in the system before it was too late. The commander had her back turned, and was fervently typing down coordinates of predicted Maverick outbreaks when Muguet came in.

"Miss Prairie," Muguet announced, "I analyzed to samples like you wanted me to, and I believe there are some mistakes in the system."

In hearing this, Prairie stopped and glanced behind her. "What do you mean 'mistakes'?" the commander questioned. Her tone was… vague. Muguet took this to stand a bit straighter before continuing.

"The samples -no matter if I observed, analyzed, or prodded- were found to be exactly the same DNA. Not only that, but I was able to find not just human DNA, but Reploid's as well. It was a perfect 50/50 split in both of the samples. If the tests are correct, they are the perfect combination of Reploid and human, but that would be impossible. Wouldn't it Commander?"

For the longest time, Prairie didn't respond and seemed to have frozen in her spot. Muguet looked on with a raise of her eyebrow. Something wasn't right about this, and as much as she wanted to figure it out, Muguet knew better than to stick her nose in business it didn't belong in.

"Where does the DNA trace back out to?" Prairie finally inquired. "Can you pinpoint _whose_ DNA the two have?"

The nurse gave a firm nod before realizing that the commander likely could not see it. "Using samples we obtained from Neo Arcadia, I can safely affirm that we know where the Reploid side came from." Muguet agreed.

"What about the human side?"

"That will take much longer to decide." the nurse informed her. "Apparently, it wasn't anyone living within Neo Arcadia. But they could have existed outside of the city (Giga City, for example). It will be awhile for us to find out for sure."

"Have you told Rose, or anyone else about this development?" Prairie then asked.

"No." Muguet affirmed. "You're the first I told and the only one I planned on telling. Why?"

Again, the nurse's question was answered with silence.

"Commander," Muguet finally said in a tone that indicated a start of mistrust, "I have been Vent's nurse since he was no more than three hours old. If there is something about that child you need to tell me, and what it has to do with his connection to Aile, I have the right to know more about it. Don't you think?"

Thinking it over for a moment before letting out a heavy sigh, Prairie finally turned her chair around to look at Muguet directly. "It's a long story." the commander told her. The nurse wasn't buying it, and folded her arms.

"And I have plenty of time." she retorted. "Please start when you are ready Miss Prairie."

. . .

"...And then I went back to get the boy's dog too." Vent informed Aile with a proud smile. He had been surprised when she wasn't in the medical room, and he was even more surprised to see her in the training room using Model Z's buster. Aile had some real skill, a skill that almost made him feel impulsed to hand her Model X to keep. The jealous part of him, however, wouldn't let him to go through with it.

"Well aren't you sweet," Aile teased as she casually tossed Model Z up and down, "Saving little pupper-shnups everywhere you go. I'm sure you're a real dog person, after all, you did steal my dog."

"Why do you have to keep bringing that up?!" Vent demanded with a whine. "It's not like I planned to do it!"

"Because your reaction to it is hilarious." Aile snickered. "Were you able to get the Biometal after a failed attempt to steal someone else's dog?"

Giving her a knowing smirk, Vent pulled out a new Biometal out of his pocket to show her. "May I introduce," Vent then declared with a flourish, "The Biometal of the Flame, Model F!"

' _Well helloooo sister!_ ' the Biometal immediately proclaimed. ' _I warned her that something like this would happen some day, and look who gets the last laugh!_ '

' _Model F._ ' Model H warned, coming out from Vent's pocket, but not going much further than that.

' _What?_ ' the Biometal of Flame questioned, seeing nothing wrong. ' _Wait, is this some big secret? Thanks for telling me!_ '

' _You knew full well it was Model F._ ' Model X declared, also coming out of Vent's pocket.

' _Now, if you would kindly, shut up._ ' Model Z added with a tone hinting at annoyance.

"Hey Aile..." Vent then said, "How about you hold onto Model F for awhile?"

"What? No way!" Aile declared with disgust. "I'm not keeping the lycan for you! When you find the siren and the tulpa, then I might agree- but I'm not holding Model F for you, no way!"

"Why them?!" Vent rebutted bitterly.

"Because I feel more in tune with them." Aile agreed, folding her arms in defiance. Vent slapped his forehead.

"That is the single most dumbest thing I have heard anyone say!" he proclaimed.

"And how would _you_ know? Do you know anyone else that can MegaMerge?"

"I did… but that's beside the point! It's not fair that you've claimed two Biometals you don't even know yet!"

"Well it's not fair that you're the one that gets to go out and rescues the Biometals! Maybe I want a turn to save one!"

"Aile it's not safe for you to-"

"Why?! Because I'm a girl?"

"WHAT?! No!"

"It is! I can see it all over your face!"

' _Would you two stop bickering?!_ ' Model X suddenly demanded. It scared the duo witless and they instantly fell silent. ' _If it is going to be such a big deal between you two,_ I _will be the Biometal that stays behind._ '

"B-but..!" Vent instantly argued. "How will I be able to Double MegaMerge?!"

' _Aile is able to partially Merge with Model Z, has she tried to completely Merge yet? If she can do this, then you should have no problem either._ '

"But…!"

' _Have you tried Vent?_ ' Model X questioned in a calm, domineering tone. The boy looked away, grumbling very bitter words under his breath.

' _Get into your Merge pose._ ' Model X then told Vent. Grudgingly, he did so and turned to Model Z. The red Biometal took this as its cue and started to begin the MegaMerge process. When it finished, Vent gave Aile a displeased, bitter glare as if the whole thing were her fault.

"Well, that's not how I remember Giro's armor..." Aile mused to herself with a tilt of her head. Vent gave her a funny look before looking himself over- sure enough, Model Z was Merged with Vent the same way it would have been if he was Model ZX. Now he was confused. Before he could question it though, a Guardian came in to the training room.

"We really need to fix the speaker system in here..." the Guardian grumbled to himself before looking up to address Vent and Aile, "Vent, the commander has a new mission for you. She'd like to see you in the command center as soon as possible."

"I'll be there in a minute." Vent promised, allowing the Guardian to leave. Then Vent turned back to Aile, who was now holding Model X with a bright smile on her face, as if the Biometal were an old friend she missed dearly.

"Are you sure you're going to be alright?" Vent asked, almost making the question seem more for the Biometal than Aile.

' _You have had plenty of time with me, and now you must share Vent._ ' Model X confirmed. ' _Go and help Prairie, secure the next Biometal, Aile and I are destined for a bonding session._ '

Grimacing, Vent nodded and went to see Prairie. Apparently, they have received a distress signal somewhere with a Biometal signature close at hand- the commander wanted him to find the survivors (should there be any) and recover the Biometal. Vent agreed without hesitation, much to Prairie's surprise.

He couldn't get his mind off of Model X and Aile though. It wasn't fair- he wanted to have Model X. Model Z didn't have that... feeling Model X gave Vent. It was a good feeling, a loving feeling, that reminded Vent so much of Juno and Giro and Sho…

But then a thought came to the boy- a near terrifying one. Did Aile even have a family? Something told him that Rush was the only family the girl had and she never knew the same embraces that Vent took for granted. Could Aile feel that love through Model X like he did? As Vent traversed to Area F, his heart grew heavy for Aile. Maybe they should talk about their families when he returned to HQ. Maybe they could find out why they looked so much like each other, and why they knew each other beforehand.

Maybe, just maybe, they could even be related.

. . .

Silently, Muguet stood just outside earshot of Aile inside the training room. The girl was a pure natural with the buster Model X was capable of producing. From where the nurse stood, each round was a perfect hit. It was as amazing as it was terrifying. The nurse now knew Aile's true heritage -and Vent's- and allowing this information to process while observing Aile's training was fascinating. Biological children of Mega Man X and an unknown human woman.

According to Prairie, the two didn't even know of their connection.

They didn't know what made them special.

They didn't even know that they weren't exactly human after all.


	13. Faulty Memory

The radio signal was like an obnoxious buzzing that you couldn't get out of your head. Worst of all, Vent couldn't pinpoint it to a single location to stop it.

"The distress call definitely came from this area," Prairie affirmed, sensing Vent's discomfort over the sound, "The signal is too weak to pinpoint an exact location."

"I can't get a lock on it either." Vent grumbled back into the headset. "Is there a way to drain some of the feedback? The ping is really starting to grade on my nerves."

"Maybe." Prairie decided after a few moments. "Dampening the signals on your end may mess up our feed, but I'll see what I can do. Are you sure that is what you want to do?"

"Yeah." Vent affirmed. "That would help a lot. I'll proceed onward and let you know if I find anything."

"Understood." the commander agreed before the boy continued on.

. . .

The Guardian's live fire course seemed more like laser tag. You had to shoot targets, dodge others, and try not to get hit yourself. Aile was already up to level A at this point, she just needed to be a smidge faster to get the SA rank. Her accuracy had no problem at all, it was just her ability to fire. Sometimes she ended up hesitating at a target- it became more noticeable if an 'innocent' target was around the 'hostile' one. At these instances, Model X would give her his opinion on how to approach (usually by moving to a different angle) before Aile took her shot.

At some point, Aile paused a moment to check her score so far. Seeing how well she was doing made the young girl beam with overconfidence.

"If we keep up at this rate, I bet I'll be even better than you were!" Aile triumphantly declared. At her words, the girl noticed an immediate change in the Biometal, as if it had experienced something that horrified it.

' _Aile, stop! Stop!_ ' Model X suddenly declared as he forced the two of them to demerge.

"What?" Aile questioned, now feeling worried, "What?!"

' _I… I just need to take a break._ ' the Biometal quickly told her. Aile wasn't sure how it was possible, but she swore she could feel it quiver in fear… or sadness.

"Did I do it? Did I scare you?" the girl asked it carefully, unsure of how to make it feel better, or what sparked this reaction to begin with.

' _N-no… it's not that at all!_ ' Model X then assured her. ' _I really seem to be falling back on older ISOs a lot recently._ '

"Do you want to see Fleuve?" Aile offered kindly. "I'm sure he could take a look at you."

' _No, please, the poor Reploid has other things to worry about than me. I just… Aile… who took care of you when you were young?_ '

Aile recoiled a little, not quite willing to tell him.

' _Someone did take care of you other than that dog, didn't they?_ ' Model X questioned, almost sounding to be angered.

"I.. can't remember him… very well..." Aile carefully admitted, looking up at the Biometal with a sheepish, and very flushed face.

' _You're telling me that you can't remember who cared for you during the first ten years of your life?_ '

"Well… yes and no… It's kinda like a paradox, he existed without really existing. And now, to fix the timeline or whatever, my memory of him is fading."

' _Aile, do you understand how much it infuriates me that you can't remember someone who might not have even existed?_ ' the Biometal then said to her. ' _Do you realize how much danger you were in if you were just left to your devices at such a young age?! Aile… Aile, if I had known this, I would have… We… we could have done something…_ '

The Biometal seemed to pause for a moment as Aile lulled over its words. After a certain amount of time, Model X then said to her in a somber tone, ' _You're not the only one who can't remember someone important._ '

"Are you two alright down there?" one of the Guardians asked through an intercom. "Would you like to terminate the test?"

Aile paused as she looked at Model X for a moment. The Biometal knew that she was waiting for its answer. Calmly, it Merged with her once more, allowing Aile to continue the training.

"We've got it under control Fusil," Aile confirmed, "Resume training."

. . .

Even with the Guardians filtering a bit of the static out for Vent, the closer he seemed to get, the louder it became. He had tried -honest- to get through the signal, but everything ended up as static or empty pings. Finally, Vent found the room where the signal was coming from. Inside the room was a computer terminal, and the boy's first instinct was the smash it into bits for annoying him until this point. Model F didn't help this train of thought much.

"Prairie," Vent then directed toward his headset, raising the Guardian's commander, "I found the terminal that has been sending out the signal. I don't see anyone around though."

"Really? I wonder what could have happened there?"

Shrugging a little, Vent walked over to the terminal and it responded to him instantly- shutting off the ping and revealing that it had a data disk inside of it, ready to read.

"It looks like there's a data disk still in the terminal." Vent then told Prairie.

"Can you try to read it?"

Vent gave a rather defiant side glance to his headset. "Prairie, I am _not_ a hacker." he said, his tone no less interested by this development. Computers bugged him, and that was saying something when some of his best friends were Reploids.

"Do what you can." the commander requested, before adding a "Please." as if she really needed to say it. With a mildly defiant huff, Vent pressed a button on the console. It revealed itself to have a DOS command system to which Vent clumsily entered a run code. The console hummed as it brought up two files- one was a document, and the other was a picture with some folks around something like a Biometal. Both files were corrupted -due to Vent's bad coding skills, as if he really noticed- but it was still readable. Doing a sloppy job at sending the files to Guardian HQ, Vent looked over the one document himself as the files uploaded.

 _-aGVscHVz-_ _The recon unit has uncovered a strange metal in this area. It seems… conscious. It began to speak to some of us in our minds- I have not experienced this, yet I can not judge. The commander called it 'Biometal Model W' and urged mild caution. We continued to search under her orders…_ _-aXRzYWxiZXJ0-_ _However, everyone (including those who could not hear the voices) was beginning to complain of unexplained headaches and numbness… Upon hearing this, she removed us from the site and continued to research on her own. Despite the precautions, our unit was annihilated. One of our own suddenly went mad and…_ _-bm9nYW11-_

Suddenly, just as Vent finished reading the last line, the computer shut off- seeming to have died after a small beep had confirmed the data was sent to HQ. To make sure Prairie understood that that was all he had, he raised her on this headset to confirm that it was the end of the data.

"This is from Sis… the first commander's recon unit. The distress call must have been triggered to make sure someone finds the data. But the recon unit itself is… gone..."

Vent looked up as the commander fell silent. "Just because the unit is gone… doesn't mean we should give up on your sister." he eventually said, sounding more like he was speaking a thought. "The best thing we should do now is locate the last two Biometals, right? You can do this Prairie, I need you. We all need you to stand strong."

"You're right..." she agreed in a soft voice. "Thank you Vent. The Biometal signature is just up ahead beyond the locked door next to you. We'll hack the lock from Guardian HQ, just be ready for anything, alright?"

"Got it." Vent agreed as he withdrew Model F's buster canon. "Unlock the door Prairie, I'm ready for anything."

. . .

Aile waited for Vent outside a dorm she had been relocated to after being checked out by Muguet.

"Here's your siren." Vent said to her, tossing the Biometal her way without much thought. Aile caught it with expert ease and hugged the Biometal like an old friend.

"Thanks!" she gleefully thanked. "What happened to the Maverick?"

Vent waved a hand at her before flopping down on her bed. "Called me a creepy runt. Model L didn't seem too attached to it either."

Aile sat beside Vent and the two looked at each other with a wondering glance.

"Vent..." Aile then started to ask, now holding Model L in her lap. "Have you ever been in a really bad Maverick raid before?"

"Not that I can remember." Vent mused as he leaned backward a bit. "That was how I came to be with Boss, a Maverick raid. But I can't remember that. I was told that I lost my mother in that outbreak, and I was dumped off at Giro Express by some stranger who had helped clear out survivors."

"Then you can't remember _any_ Maverick outbreaks in your life?" Aile questioned, raising an eyebrow at him.

"Well there was one time when I was three or so," he decided as he started to sit up, "Juno (a really good friend of mine) took me to the park and some Mavericks showed up. It didn't bother me much, but she was… different, for some time after that."

Aile scrunched her nose and gave him a funny look. "You… _forgot_ the very event that led you to Giro, but you _remember_ a time from when you were three and a half...?"

"I can't remember." Vent insisted. "Honest."

"You just don't… _forget_ a Maverick raid Vent." Aile then told him, her tone slowly getting more quiet. "It sticks with you. It burns in your mind like the scorched remains of a forest fire. Giro didn't find you during a Maverick outbreak, or you would have remembered it like the time you were with Juno. You would have reacted like… like Juno did. You would reacted to that moment the same way Juno did if you were in an outbreak before. Especially if the event cost you a speakable family. Vent… I'm beginning to that think Giro lied to you."

"Never!" Vent declared as he jumped up. "He would never to that? And even if he did, why would he? What reason would Girouette have to _lie_ about where I came from?"

Aile hung her head, unsure of how to answer. But Vent's mind was now in turmoil. Giro didn't lie to Vent, there was no way, and yet…

"The Guardians have a pretty expansive data network." Aile then offered. Vent looked up at her and knew exactly what he was going to do next.


	14. A Record of Lies

Vent's fingers hovered over the computer keyboard, but didn't actually move. Rush watched him patiently, as the wolf-dog had decided that escorting Vent to the computer lab was more interesting that allowing Aile to train with the Biometals. The boy's first instinct was to search for Girouette. Looking down at Rush for some kind telepathic approval on this thought proved to be the cause of his hesitation. Another name floated around in Vent's mind, and that was the name his fingers autonomously typed into the database search.

-YOUR SEARCH FOR 'Juno Persica' HAS HELD 1 RESULT-

Staring at the screen for a moment, feeling something close to dread for some reason, Vent opened that file.

GIVEN NAME: Juno Persica [Middle Name Undisclosed]

YEAR OF BIRTH/CREATION: 2159 [Aged 25 Years]

PHYSICAL ATTRIBUTES: _HAIR_ \- Brown, _EYES_ \- Green, _EPIDERMAL TONE_ \- Type III

KNOWN ASSOCIATIONS: Giro Express [10 Years, Assistant to CEO], Sage Trinity [5 Years, Publicist], Giro Express [4 Years, Secondary Head/Assistant to CEO]

CURRENT STATUS: Deceased

Vent stared at that word 'deceased' for the longest time, it almost felt like his brain had gone into a shut down. Dead? Juno was… dead? That couldn't have been possible. He had just seen her a little more than a week ago, right? Barely controlling his movements, Vent opened up the file that held the death record and read through it. He could hardly see any of the words, but he forced himself to read it.

RECORD OF TERMINATION: Originally believed to have gone missing June 22, 2184. Juno Persica intercepted Mission X on June 28 the same year, leading a small group of Mavericks to attack Giro Express. [ _An opposing Mechaniloid was sent to attack the Guardians, it is presumed that she was leading this as well._ ] Appearing to be under the influence of an external source, Persica fought for control but still attempted to harm Girouette, head of mentioned Giro Express, and was, as such, terminated. The body was still recoverable, but left behind in favor of aiding the Chosen One of Biometal Model X for later collection.

CURRENT STATUS OF BODY: Missing

Underneath of him, Rush started to whine as if he could sense Vent's distress. The boy ignored the dog as he stared at the file like a statue frozen in place. The article didn't say who killed her, but only one person was left alone with Juno at that point, so that meant…

" _Girouette encountered a new enemy while you two were separated... the event was very traumatizing for him..."_

No…

Vent hadn't been aware of it at first, but Aile had come into the room, pulled him up from the chair, and held him in a tight embrace. He wasn't even aware that he had been crying up to that point either. Faintly, Aile was telling him something soothing, even Rush was gently rubbing Vent's leg in sympathy. Model X was nearby, because Vent could feel its presence wrap him like it had done when they were Merged. Maybe Aile was wearing it and it transferred between the two of them or something. He didn't care, he didn't notice.

He just wanted his family back.

. . .

Area H. That's what Girouette used to tell him- that this was were he had found him. Lies. It had all been lies. He still wanted answers though. The only who could have possibly had them was that Maverick holding the Biometal. Aile didn't want Vent to go alone, and -yes- it was hypocritical that she was the one training and he was going at it without strategy, but he had to do this alone. Besides, didn't she want the tulpa fast and easy too?

About half way, one of the Met-based attractions came toward Vent and started to attack him. The boy let out a rather uncharacteristic growl as he switched to Model H and slashed the Met without mercy. He knew right away that it wasn't the one with the Biometal, since it didn't decide to have a year long conversation with him, but that didn't stop him from expressing his disappointment as it shut down.

"Prairie!" Vent snapped into the headset. "Where's that Biometal signature?"

"First off," Prairie snapped right back at him, "You will never address your commander that way, and second, get a hold of yourself! What the hell is wrong with you?"

"Everyone's lied to me." Vent whispered darkly. "Giro, Juno, even you. I have _no_ idea where I came from, but, as much as it bugs me something else hurts more- whose story do I have? Giro might have lied to me about where I came from, but he wouldn't lie about someone losing their family to Mavericks. If I can't trust anyone around me to tell the truth, then I'll just ask the very bastard that cut them down!"

"Oh, Vent..." Prairie groaned. "Let me guess, there's no changing your mind either. Is there?"

"At this point? No, not really." the boy agreed.

"Vent," Prairie then sighed, "The reason we lied to your was because we cared. Do you really think that Giro or Juno wanted to lie to you about where you came from? Get what information you want from the Maverick, but he can't give you the whole truth. That's… that will be my job when you get back. Got it? I'll tell you, and Aile, everything about your history when you get back. Promise?"

Vent took a step back to recoil. Admittingly, why hadn't he tried to badger Prairie for information before? Was it because he was in the Guardians' files and assumed that she didn't know anymore than that?

"Prairie… thank you." Vent found himself saying. "And I'm sorry. Recommencing mission!"

Heading onward, Vent eventually came to a small play area where the Maverick was waiting.

"Ook! Ook! So a Maverick has come to take me back, eh?" the purple, mandrill like Pseudoroid smirked when it saw Vent. "I have having such a good time playing with my new powers in this place filled with such fond memories."

"Memories...?" Vent questioned with a raise of his eyebrow.

"Years before you existed, I was just another Maverick running around here until I found a little girl. Made her a cute little orphan you see. Ook! Ook! A man came and took her away from me- that stupid fool. But just recently Lord Serpent has seen my talent. Now I'm one of his executive officers! Ook! Ook! It's incredible!"

"A girl?" Vent asked. "What did she look like?"

"So you're not one of the Mavericks?" the Pseudoroid asked, almost sounding sincere for a moment. Then it dug its hands into the ground and tossed a large chunk of rock at Vent, screeching "Then get out of my park!"

Vent protected himself with Model L from the Pseudoroid's attack, then switched back to Model Z. "Fine," the boy said, "I was going to ask nicely, but now I'll have to take the information AND the Biometal forcefully!"

"Ook? You're really going to fight me?" the Pseudoroid mused. "This will be a blast! I'll show you just how powerful the Pseudoroid Purprill really is!"

. . .

"How's Vent doing, Prairie?" Aile asked as she entered the control room. The girl was tossing Model F back and forth in her hands for no particular reason. The Biometal seemed to enjoy it though.

"He needs a therapist." Prairie replied in a cynical voice without thinking. "But other than that, he's at the Maverick holding the Biometal now. He should be reporting back soon, actually. Was there something you needed?"

Aile didn't answer at first, instead she looked down at the control panel in front of Prairie. Unintentionally, Aile reached over Prairie to get a better look at the panel, much to the Reploid's annoyance.

"Can I help you?" Prairie questioned irritably. First Vent snapping at her, and now this? What was wrong with these two today?

"Is that normal?" Aile curiously asked as she pointed to several blimps on the commander's radar. Moving the girl to the side so she could see herself, Prairie looked at the screen and noticed several enemy targets moving toward the ship. Realizing what it was, Prairie nearly cursed. To affirm her fears, a missile whizzed by the ship, just grazing the side. It was enough to cause the system to go nuts from incoming enemy fire. Thinking quickly, Prairie opened up a communication link to Vent.

"Vent! Can you hear me? Come in!" the commander demanded into the comm, "HQ radar has spotted multiple Slither Inc ships! Their fleet is flying full speed straight at us and are firing! Please get back here, we need your help!"

Another near miss from the ships caused the Guardian ship to rock, violently throwing Aile and Prairie forward.

"This ship wasn't designed for heavy battle." Prairie growled as she started to type several commands into her computer to alert the other Guardians of this development. "If the enemy boards us, we're done for."

"Then I'll go." Aile said as the thought came to her. "I'll hold them off until Vent gets here! With the Biometal, Model F, and all that training I could put up a fight!"

With her mind made up, Aile rushed out the door while Merging with Model F in transit.

"Aile!" Prairie shouted from behind her. It had been too late though, and Prairie was even more annoyed. "Do _any_ of them listen?!"


	15. Attack on HQ

Aile advanced toward the deck, blasting any Galleons she happened to see on the way. On deck, there were a few deployers attached to the ship, letting out Galleons in rows. Knowing her plan, Aile began to blast the deploys off the ship. Fending off several deployers, Aile believed that she had gotten rid of all of them until one landed far too close to her, causing Aile to lose her balance as the doors of the deployer opened.

Out rushed several more Galleons that started to reveal two figures behind the group. The last two dashed directly toward the door leading into HQ. Already switching Model F out for Model X, Aile went straight in after them.

"I've seen them before..." Aile said to herself as she reentered Guardian HQ's dormitory level. Immediately, Aile heard the sounds of Rush coming toward her, begging for her critical attention. Regardless of the current circumstances, Aile gave the wolf-dog a quick squeeze around the neck, grateful that he was safe for now.

"Rush, it's not safe out here." she told her companion sternly. "Go get Muguet, or Rose."

But the wolf-dog was having none of it. A low woof alerted Aile that he knew something.

"You know where the intruders went?" the girl then questioned, finding herself a bit surprised.

Rush growled, indicated that he did know. Any other day, Aile would have questioned this, but she didn't have the time.

"Take me to them." she demanded. "Now!"

Affirming, Rush immediately led Aile down lower in HQ. They ended up in the reactor room, with the two intruders about to destroy the power source.

"Get away from that!" Aile demanded, pointing Model X's buster at the duo. They paused for a moment, looking at her with identical, blank glare.

"Do what the lady said and stand away from the reactor!" a familiar voice said from next to Aile. The girl gave a wild look at it to see Vent -Merged with Model Z-, giving her a rather cocky smile. Prairie was behind him, likely due to being the one to bring him to the room. The two exchanged a nod of greeting before turning back to the intruders.

"You two..." the female of the intruders (Pandora, Aile remembered) said in a slow, thinking tone. She looked at Aile saying, "Model X..." then she turned to Vent to say, "Model Z… together..."

"What a grand reunion of two powerful heroes." the male Reploid (Prometheus, as Aile could recall) agreed with a malicious smirk. "I was ordered to cut down the Guardians, what wonderful fate that it could happen this way!"

"Guess you're gonna have to wait a little longer." Vent snorted back before turning to Aile. "Take Prairie and Rush and get to the command room." he then told her, "Try to find the other half of the Biometals' data. I can handle him."

Aile looked at him with wide eyes. "But…!" she tried to protest. Meanwhile, Prometheus and Pandora were having their own discussions.

"Prometheus..." Pandora softly mewled, "It's not fair..."

"Don't worry," he snarled back at her, "I'll leave some fun for you. I won't guarantee in how many pieces though." With this, as Pandora teleported out, he pulled out his scythe and drew Aile and Vent's attention again.

"Go!" Vent quickly demanded before shoving Aile, Prairie, and Rush out of the room. Prometheus let out a cackle as he lunged at Vent when his back was turned, the boy was able to react quickly and blocked the blow. For a moment, the Reploid appeared surprised, but it quickly melted into a malicious glee.

"You know, I never got the chance to fight _her_." Prometheus informed Vent as the Reploid swung his scythe at Vent's neck. The boy let out a yelp as he ducked out of the way, and rolled underneath Prometheus. Vent then jumped with the Z-saber in hand, attempting an upward slash from behind the Reploid. The attempt was almost botched as Prometheus turned around, but the tip of Vent's blade clipped the Reploid's side. Prometheus let out a light sound of surprise from the contact before turning to look Vent dead in the eye. The boy backed away a bit, hoping that it had caused more damage than what it appeared. It hadn't, however.

"Only two powers are stronger than that of Model W." Prometheus told Vent as the corners of his lips curved into a wicked smile. "And if you dare think that anything _blue_ has something to do with it… then let me be the first to say that you are sorely mistaken. The future, you'll find, will always turn up **red**!"

In a blink, Prometheus seemed to have disappeared before reappearing above Vent. The Reploid then let out a cackle as he fell toward him, spinning the scythe like a screw. Vent was able to dash out of the way, then used a quick time frame when Prometheus hit the ground to make a retaliation of his own. Prometheus immediately turned his body around to glare at Vent again.

"She fought a demon for nearly an entire week." the Reploid continued before he disappeared again. He reappeared in the middle of the room, summoning a line of fire pillars that climbed down the walls, across the floor, then up the wall again. Vent was just barely able to jump over the floor pillars and landed another scrape at the Reploid. "It would have been admirable," Prometheus continued as he began to glow a dark purple and his armor becoming more orange, "But I vowed to always hate her. Always!"

Four purple smoke-like skulls appeared around Vent, which then started to project little balls of fire at him. Vent cut out the fire skulls before charging the Z-saber to cut down Prometheus as well. This seemed to harm the Reploid enough that his armor returned to its original state and he calmly floated back down to the floor.

"You're more powerful than I expected." Prometheus told Vent with a mischievous snarl and a tilt of his head. "Maybe even more powerful than her. Unfortunately, thanks to the red Mega Man, we'll never know who really was. Just imagining that look on your face… it would have been more satisfying than the one from earlier!"

Chuckling, Prometheus started to raise up into the air. Vent reacted by drawing the Z-saber out once more in preparation.

"Where do you think you're going?!" the boy demanded. "We're not finished!"

Prometheus let out a nasty scoff. "You're lucky to be alive right now!" he snorted. "If you really want to press your luck, we'll be waiting!" The Reploid then began to give a maniacal laughter before he teleported out of HQ.

Vent stared at the spot where Prometheus once was before he made his way to the command room.

"What's the damage report?" Vent inquired as he entered the room. Prairie and Aile immediately turned around to face him- Aile even took the opportunity to give him a heartfelt hug. Even Rush seemed really excited that Vent had made it back safe and sound.

"We'll be alright for now." Prairie informed him. "We have permission from an anonymous witness to land in their airfield to make better repairs. But it will take us awhile to reach the area. Were you able to secure the Biometal?"

"Yeah." Vent agreed as he pulled out Model P. "Here Aile," he then offered, giving it to the girl. She beamed upon seeing it, and pulled Vent in for another hug.

"Thank you." she beamed gratefully. Vent smiled back at her kindly, accepting her hug warmly. Prairie looked on, both touched and feeling a bit sad.

"You two… truly are something else." she sighed thoughtfully. Confused now, Aile and Vent pulled out of their embrace and gave Prairie an equal, bewildered look.

"What do you mean?" they asked her at the same time. For the longest time, Prairie didn't seem to answer, instead looking off to the side and letting out a long sigh.

"I don't even know where to begin..." Prairie started with a shake of her head.

"Begin what?" Aile asked, looking from the commander to Vent in confusion.

"The truth." Vent replied in a still voice.

"The truth about _what_?" Aile asked again, looking solely at Prairie now.

"Have you two ever… wonder about your heritage?" the commander questioned in a quiet tone. "Have you ever stopped to question why you hardly got sick during a serious virus outbreak? Did you ever do something and you stopped to think 'is that even possible?' and come find that it, in fact, should not have been done?"

Aile and Vent only looked at her. She took this as a sign to continue.

"You two aren't human… but you're not Reploid either. You… you're actually a perfect combination of both. A new species altogether. A… a, uh… a humanoid. You two are special, too special, that's why the Biometals chose you."

The two kids remained silent, refusing to look at each other. Then Aile had a thought.

"Are we the only ones like this?" she questioned. Almost immediately, Prairie shook her head.

"There is one other." the commander informed them, her face flinching slightly at a memory. "I was able to meet her some time ago. She's older than you two, but she doesn't look it. I think Giro had more interest in her than I ever did; I wasn't too fond of her mother, you see. But she doesn't share the same DNA that you have."

"If we have DNA from a human and Reploid," Vent then spoke up, drawing his thoughts out as he went, "Would you know who they are?"

At this idea, Prairie laid back on her seat, closed her eyes, and drew a conflicted sigh. "It's a long story," she finally started to say, "But I guess we could start at the beginning."


	16. Chosen

Aile now knew that Over-1 had told her the stories of her own mother. Prairie didn't have all the details, leaving Aile to unintentionally interrupt the Reploid to fill in the blanks. It was all there, though. All of it. As Aile sat there, with Rush in her lap and hanging on every word Prairie said, she found herself more mystified of what had happened more than questioning the outcomes of those predicaments. She even had the name of the girl she had heard her whole life about, the name of her very mother: Aero. Aero Sephira.

Vent didn't say a word. He found his mind was slow to process the information that he felt he should have known. All these names and dates came into his thoughts and became abstract and worthless. They floated around, both meaningful and meaningless, before dissipating altogether. Ultimately, it made him feel numb. He wasn't even sure if he was still mad at Giro for lying to him anymore.

"Sis, she took over the operations toward your development." Prairie explained passively, taking on a syntax that she hoped they could keep up with. Not that it had been very hard- the two were very receptive so far. "It was years after the wars though; humans and Reploids were living in peace. Sis took advantage of the peace to relocate the chambers. But the sentient machines known as Mavericks continued to cause devastation. At one point, they found the chambers and started to attack the base. It dawned on us that having you two together was dangerous, so at that moment Sis made the decision for Girouette to take one of you and leave the other behind."

Vent's eyes widened at this news. "He… chose me?" he asked in awe. Prairie agreed with a nod.

"Sis disappeared not long after that, leaving Giro to blame me for the whole mess." she told him. "I think he always hated himself for not pushing to take the other. Not that he should be placed at fault for that- I never understood Sis's thought behind the whole idea of separating the two of you to begin with. Giro definitely had a harder time with it than I did."

"But what about me?" Aile quickly questioned. "Was I supposed to… to _die_?!"

"You were _supposed_ to go to an orphanage in Outer Kirjath Arba." Prairie spat at the girl, becoming nearly appalled at Aile's thought. "After Girouette was cleared out, I took the other. Like I said, you were supposed to be in an orphanage, far enough away from the other that no one would have suspected your true nature."

"But someone did?" Vent inquired.

"I was told to keep tabs with the orphanage on her progress," Prairie informed the both of them, "But one day, I was told that Aile was missing."

"Missing?" Aile and Vent asked at the same time. The commander gave a nod before turning her attention to the computer console.

"Aile," Prairie then said as she entered several keyboard commands, "How much do you remember of Over-1?"

The girl opened her mouth to answer, but it wasn't needed as a video feed ran up on the overhead screen. A Reploid, completely dressed in an older designed armor colored white and blue with a fur collar trimming, took over the screen. Aile could nearly feel her jaw drop. As seeing he had never met this Reploid before, Vent became confused, but remained silent on Aile's behalf.

"Greetings Alouette, or Commander Prairie. Pardon my jargon, time keeps slipping and I can barely keep track." the Reploid spoke in a calm, sensible voice. "You should have discovered recently that the daughter of Aero Lillian Sephira was taken from the orphanage you planted her in. I have observed the scenario outside of time and found it quite ridiculous, therefore I have elected to adopt her for you. As with the guardian of Mega Man X's son, I too have a promise to keep. I can assure you madam that I will care for the child as I cared for Aero, until she reaches a certain age- approximately ten to eleven years, at the most. Thank you for your understanding, may we see each other in time." With that, the video feed ended, leaving Aile in a bit of shock.

"He… chose me?" the girl questioned to herself. "Because of… of..."

A picture then flashed up on the screen (without the input of Prairie judging by the look on her face) and it caused Vent and Aile to look up. A second more and the two were speechless.

"How did that get there?" the commander questioned as she attempted to get rid of the picture. None of the console commands seemed to work. "We don't even have any pictures of her on file..."

In saying this, Prairie paused for a moment before looked up at the photograph herself. Then she looked back down at the duo with a sudden thought.

"You've never seen her before, have you? You've never seen the Mother Elf or her original body…?" she realized before looking back up at the picture. In silence, the three stared at the photograph and didn't say a word.

. . .

"So… Prairie…?" Aile then mused a little later on.

"Yes?" the commander answered with interest.

"You mentioned that we share the same DNA… does that mean that we're…?"

"Twins?" Prairie finished, raising an eyebrow at the girl. "Yes, yes I suppose you are."

Instantly, Vent and Aile looked at each other with matching smiles.

"Did you hear that Vent?" Aile asked, her smiling growing.

"Yeah I heard it Aile." Vent agreed, his smile growing in tandem with hers.

"We're..."

"Twins."

"Wicked!" they both declared in unison as they gave each other an ecstatic high five.

"It was getting pretty obvious though, don't you think?" Aile then giggled.

"Totally." Vent agreed with a laugh of his own.

"Now that we have that settled," Prairie interrupted them, "We have the other halves of the Biometals to find. Are you two ready?"

The kids looked at the commander with bright smiles. "Bring it!" they both declared.

"Wonderful." Prairie nodded as she turned back around to her computer console. On the monitor, she brought up the locations for four Biometal signatures. "This is where we were able to trace the next signatures," she then told them, "You two can either go out together to secure them, or you can divide and conquer. Unless Vent would like to secure the Biometal halves himself, as he had before."

"We're going to divide." Vent told the commander. "Aile's been training really hard- it would be a shame for her not to be able to go out on the field."

Aile gave Vent a surprised look, to which he looked back with a smile.

"You're ready for this, aren't you?" he asked, although he looked as if he knew what her answer would be. "I'll secure the other halves of Model H and Model F, and you can get Model L and Model P's other halves."

"Alright." Aile agreed with a nod.

"So it's settled." Prairie affirmed. "We'll begin retrieving the other halves as soon as possible, starting tomorrow. Do you two concur?"

Vent and Aile gave each other a thoughtful look before nodding to each other.

"Let's do it Prairie." Vent agreed.

"Report here first thing tomorrow," Prairie confirmed, "For now though, sweet dreams… and congratulations on finding each other again."

"Thanks!" the twins smiled with equally wide, cheesy grins.

Sleep was the last thing on their minds, however. Both of them laid down on Vent's bed, staring up at the roof as they talked about their lives before. Rush was the only one asleep, deciding to rest at the foot of the bed so Aile and Vent could look at each other while they discussed things.

"….And he'd take me to the highway, and we'd look out at the skyline while the sun went down. Some times he'd tell me about Mama -you know, before I realized she was our mom- and I knew, always knew, that he wasn't just telling me some kind of fairy tale to scare me. It was always so sad knowing what happened to her… Some Reploids just aren't very nice..."

Aile then turned to look at Vent. Her expression was soft, but mostly unreadable- Vent looked back at her with a raise of his eyebrow.

"If you don't mind..." she then said, biting her lower lip with thought, "Can you tell me what it was like growing up with a… with a family? You know, with Giro and Juno, kinda acting like your dad and mom..."

"They're not my parents." Vent retorted, scrunching his nose up as if the thought disgusted him. "Juno's only ten years older than me."

"You know what I mean… don't you?" Aile then questioned, her voice getting quieter. Vent looked at her, and perhaps, though an invisible link, he knew exactly what she meant and why she was even asking.

"Yeah," he eventually agreed, "I know exactly what you mean." The boy paused a few moments after that, before continuing, "Boss started Giro Express a few months after he was activated, then Juno came around and sort of 'wore the pants' around the place."

Aile gave a soft snicker, to which Vent gave a small smirk himself.

"He really liked her." the boy reminisced thoughtfully. "And then I came along, and I was either everyone's bane, or their little brother..."


	17. Divide and Conquer

Even if they hadn't gotten much sleep the night before, you never would have known it by the way Aile and Vent went over their entry strategies with Prairie.

"Area J is half submerged in water, you'll need Model L."

"But won't the Pseudoroid be weak to Model F's power? I'll need Model F too."

"Hmmm… you have a point..."

"Of course I have a point- I'm right."

"Now wait just a minute Aile!"

"There are power anomalies located near the other half of Model H's data." Prairie informed the both of them. "I think Model P's in house targeting and mapping system would come in handy there."

"Model L would come in handy with that Pseudoroid too." Aile thought over with an absentminded nod. "I'll go after Model H's other data then."

"Vent, do you agree?" Pairie confirmed, as she began to write the mission data.

Vent nodded. "Yeah. I can get Model P's data while you do that. What do you think?"

"Totally." Aile agreed.

"Are you settled, then?" Prairie then asked them. With their approving nods, Prairie typed up a few commands on her computer. "The data is now being relayed to the transerver, where you two can pick the missions your choose." she then informed them. "Good luck."

Vent and Aile gave one more nod before pacing to the transerver.

"Which one of us do you think is older?" Vent questioned as they made their way.

"Well..." Aile thoughtfully decided, "Model Z said he remembered something about me being the more dominant of our previous lives- maybe I'm older."

"You're bossy enough." Vent snickered.

"Now wait a minute!"

"Oh look, here's the transerver!" Vent quickly announced as he leapt up onto the transerver with dexterity. Aile wasn't amused. Humming happily, Vent choose the correct mission data and prepped the transerver for transference. He paused for a moment to look at Aile, and in return she looked back at him with a less than pleased expression.

"Stay safe." he then said to her. Aile recoiled, now giving Vent a rather confused look.

"I've trained." she told him, fairly blunt, "Unlike _someone_ else."

"But you hesitate." he reminded her. "There are times when you can't hesitate. I don't want you to… to die, like Giro. You're the only family I have now, Aile. I need you. I don't want you to die, not when I just now get to meet you..."

Aile looked at him, and for a moment she was silent. "I didn't even know I had a family until I met you." she admitted. "I'm not going to die, as long as you don't. Got it? We're in this together- we're a team!"

But Vent didn't leave.

"Maybe we should be doing the missions together." he soon quietly requested. "Maybe Prairie can..."

Aile cut him off with a shake of her head. "Let's do these missions first. If it's too much, we'll double team. How about that? It's not going to be fair to Prairie if we decide to change the mission plans now."

Grudgingly, Vent agreed, and with that he left. With a raise of her eyebrow, Aile got up onto the transerver and began her mission.

After arriving at Area I's transerver, Aile started to travel into the back end of the power plant.

"Prairie, where did you say the life signs were?" Aile then asked as she raised the commander on her headset.

"The life signs look like they're located in the very back of the area," she informed her, "Since Vent defeated the one in charge of the power plant operation earlier, some of the equipment may not be working now. I'm sure you could find a way to get the electricity flowing again."

For a moment, Aile thought of Model H's electricity bolts, and then remembered that she did not have it. "Alright," she agreed regardless, "I'll see if I can find some way to get the power back on." and with that, she went on.

. . .

Vent arrived safely at the transerver that could take him to Area L, and for a moment, he just stood there. He felt… weird. He couldn't explain why or how, but thinking about Aile… something just felt... wrong.

' _Vent,_ ' Model H spoke up, ' _You have a mission to complete. What are you doing just standing around for?_ '

"Model H..." Vent sighed heavily, "I… I don't know. Something just feels… off about letting Aile go alone. I can't explain it, I just..."

' _Aile trained._ ' the Biometal reminded Vent rather bluntly. ' _You decided to go at this whole operation like a lycan on a full moon. I think she has more right to feel worried about you than vice versa, don't you think?_ '

"Yeah, but..."

' _But?_ '

"Have you ever just… have this feeling of foreboding that you absolutely couldn't place?" Vent looked up as he gave a heavy sigh brought on by heavy thoughts. "Like… you have the thing you've always wanted the most, but… but fear that something will take it away and that it wasn't really yours to begin with?"

For a while, Vent could feel the Biometal hesitate. It was struggling to remember something, but failed.

' _Vent, you were a very sheltered child._ ' Model H then said, deterring the subject somewhat, ' _There were things that Girouette, Juno, Sho, Muguet, and Prairie left you in the dark for, for your own good. A lot of things happened in the background that you didn't notice- perhaps from pure naivete or lack of interest. Regardless, due to these securities, Aile certainly seems to have more world experience than you do, and thus, should be safer out here than you'll ever be. The longer you wait here, the longer it will be before you two can talk this out yourselves. We have a mission; are you going to do it or not?_ '

The boy thought about this for a moment, then nodded before going on.

Area L was heavy with Mavericks, they seemed to get even thicker as Vent went on. Eventually, Vent made it to the Pseudoroid, who had been waiting for him for quite some time apparently.

"You've come at last..." the Pseudoroid greeted him with a booming, but careless voice. "The foolish Mega Man that sided with the Guardians."

"You have the other half of Serpent's data." Vent agreed, pointing Model H's saber at the rhino-like creation. "Where is it?"

"All of the data that was found here is now in my internal data disk." the Pseudoroid then told him boastfully. "I just need to destroy this room with you in it, and all of the loose ends will be tied up. I am the Model P Pseudoroid, Protectos! I will crush anyone that stands in our way!"

With this, the Pseudoroid let out a small missile from his back, Vent saw it shoot up into the sky as Protectos hid himself inside his armor.

' _Vent, I think that missile is targeted toward you._ ' Model H warned as the missile started to turn back to the ground.

"Yeah," Vent groaned, "I know..."

It was just going to be one of those days.


	18. Minor Setbacks

One last carefully timed slash at Protectos's head and the Pseudoroid split open like a melon. With a rather earsplitting screech, Protectos started to combust, making Vent take cover as the debris started to clear. Carefully, the boy picked up the data disk from inside what little remains of the Maverick's body and looked for the other portion of Model P's data.

"Did you find Sis's data disk?" Prairie unexpectedly asked Vent over the headset, scaring the boy for a moment. He clutched his heart in defense, as if it were going to jump out of his skin right then and there. "The scanner indicates that you're very close to it."

"Yeah, I already have it." he replied, taking a moment to breathe. "Are you able to see the other Biometal half around here too? I can't see it."

"You can't?" Prairie inquired with a hint of surprise. "Hmm... are you using a Biometal?"

"Uh... yeah." the boy agreed, a moment of sass not lost on him. "I used Model H. Aile has Model P."

"Switch to Model Z," the commander suggested, "He should be able to see the data and keep hold of it until you meet up with Aile again."

Mumbling his doubts, Vent did so and was shocked to discover that she had been right. The little speck of data fluttered over to him and was absorbed by Model Z's armor.

"It worked." Vent marveled.

"Good." came the pleased reply. "I'll let Aile know that she can do the same with Model X. Please don't forget to bring the data disk back to HQ."

"Already coming back." Vent promised her before ending the communication link.

. . .

Meanwhile, Aile was just finishing off the Pseudoroid she was fighting as well.

"Hah..." Hurricaune wearily snickered, "Not bad... Quite the heroine aren't you?" Then the weasel-like Pseudoroid let a rather pleasured sigh as its body started to combust. "Do whatever you want with the people in the next room," it told Aile, "It won't matter anyway. Cyber Elves exposed to data on fear are the key to reviving Model W- it's awakening will still come to pass!"

Cackling, and giving in to its damage, the Pseudoroid then exploded in a bright light causing Aile to cover her eyes.

"Aile, can you hear me?" Prairie soon resonated through the headset as Aile uncovered her eyes to see Harricaune's remains. "Aile, please respond."

"I'm here Prairie." Aile said into her headset after confirming the connection. "What's up?"

"Vent and I discovered that since you do not have Model H with you, you are unable to see its other data half."

"And that's good news, how?" Aile then questioned with an arch of her eyebrow.

"It's not." Prairie informed her. "But Model X is able to see the data and temporarily collect it for us. I believe it has something to do with Model X's connection to the other Biometals- a part of him is already in them, so they recognize it and react accordingly. Do you understand what I'm saying?"

"I suppose." the girl agreed, "So that means I need to switch to Model X to collect the data?"

"Yes." came the affirmation. "Once you collect it, you and Vent will rendezvous in the lab and Fleuve will allow the data to be placed in the proper Biometal."

"That sounds... complicated."

"It's only a minor setback." the commander claimed as if it were nothing out of ordinary for her. "Remember that there are captives in the next area- you must free them before reporting back to HQ or your mission will be considered a failure."

"Of course Prairie, doing so now." Aile confirmed before closing the line. After that, Aile switched over to Model X and instantly saw the data that Prairie had been talking about as it floated over. The data lingered at her fingertips and remained in her palm enough for Aile to tilt her head at it.

' _Do you like it?_ ' Model X wondered to her before he absorbed the data for safekeeping.

"It's just data." Aile shrugged as she started to make her way over to the next area.

' _But it scared you- I could feel your heart stop for a moment when you came in contact with it. It made you think of something._ '

"It did not." Aile defied while going through the door that held the prisoners behind a locked jail cell.

' _Aile, you can't lie to a Biometal. Let alone to your_ _own_ _-_ ' the Biometal abruptly stopped, as if the next word had been blocked. Aile, who was looking over the cell's lock to determine its complexity, stopped what she was doing.

"My, what?" she questioned, feeling slightly suspicious- but the Biometal didn't answer. In her mind, she saw Model X just stand there in a daze while Model P gently pushed Model X to the side, making Aile switch Biometals without input.

' _I'll help you unlock the cell with the captives._ ' Model P then offered in a distant tone. ' _Just follow what I instruct you to do, understand?_ '

Confused, but otherwise willing to finish the mission, Aile nodded and did what Model P instructed her to get the captives out of the cell. Soon enough, they unlocked the door and Aile looked in at the prisoners. Not long after that, she was attacked by one of the Reploids inside.

"You'll never take me alive!" the Reploid bellowed at her. Aile remained where she was unmoving as she waited for the Reploid to notice that she wasn't going to hurt him. When the Reploid realized that Aile wasn't doing anything to harm him, he jumped back a little in surprise.

"You're not one of them?" he questioned, sounding even more surprised. Aile glared at him- the Reploid took it as an answer. "Oh thank goodness!" he then declared, "We were just about to become Cyber Elves!"

"Wait..." Aile requested. "What do you mean by 'become Cyber Elves?'"

The Reploid looked Aile up and down. "You're really not one of them, are you?" he then questioned, mostly to himself before shaking away the thought. "At any rate, those other guys were trying to steal our memories and change us into Cyber Elves. They were also trying to scare us before we changed. I've seen... others change into Cyber Elves, one-by-one. Geez, if you hadn't come along, I'm sure they would have done away with even more of us."

"So that's how they were able to create so many of them..." Prairie's voice resonated through Aile's headset. "They're even crueler than I imagined."

"My name's Leonardo by the way." the Reploid then said to Aile, holding out his hand for her to shake it.

"It's a pleasure to meet you." Aile agreed, accepting the handshake. "Are there any other prisoners with you?"

"Oh yeah, tons of them!" Leonardo agreed. "I'll go get who I can find!"

"Thank you." Aile thanked with a smile as Leonardo went to get other survivors.

"As soon as the survivors are together, we'll send the people back to town." Prairie then instructed over the headset. "Thank you for saving them Aile."

Aile smiled to herself: she could do these missions by herself now. And no matter what Vent said, she was going to take on the next mission alone too.


	19. Aile Goes Alone

Aile had beaten Vent to the computer room where Fleuve was working on the Biometals, and when Vent entered, he had spots of being singed here and there on his armor.

"What happened to you?!" Aile questioned as she looked him up and down.

"Turns out," huffed Vent, "I am heavily allergic to missiles."

"I'd hate to break up the reunion," Fleuve spoke up, "But do you two have the Biometals that need transferring?"

The twins agreed and handed over the four Biometals Fleuve needed.

"Wonderful." the Reploid smiled as he connected the Biometals to his computer, then turned back to Aile and Vent. "The extraction and upload process should take about three hours," he informed them, "In the mean time, you two should probably rest up."

The twins agreed with a nod and left Fleuve to fix the Biometal's data. But instead of heading to the dorms, Aile started to head toward the training room. When Vent realized where she was going, he stopped her.

"What are you doing?" he asked.

"I'm going to train with Model L while I still have her." came the quite simple answer. "You should probably do the same thing with Model F too."

"But Fleuve recommended that we get some rest."

"Recommending is not the same as demanding."

But Vent gave a look of worry that Aile took quick notice of.

"We can spar together if you want." Aile then told him. "But just because I'm the only family you have left, it doesn't mean that you can keep me locked like Rapunzel. I took on a Pseudoroid by myself and I don't have a scratch on me."

"Not yet..." Vent grumbled under his breath.

"I don't understand what you're trying to prove!" Aile added, almost ranting now. "Do you think you're the leader or something because you got a head start on the Pseudoroids without me? What's your problem Vent? What?!"

"I already told you!" Vent snapped at her.

"Saying you lost your family only works for so long!" Aile hollered back. "There's a point in mourning when you need to suck it up and _grow_ up!"

"That's easy for you to say!" fumed Vent, "You don't even _have_ a family! How would you know how I feel right now?!"

Vent realized too late the line he crossed when he noticed that Aile's expression had grown horrifyingly dark in the span of six seconds. For a moment, Aile resembled something more than a demon than an actual human-like being.

"Aile…!" Vent squeaked in realizing his mistake, "I didn't mean…!"

Aile said nothing to him as she started to walk back into the command room.

"W-wait!" Vent called out from behind, "What are you doing?!"

He didn't receive an answer as Aile kept making way. Making himself move, Vent started to run to catch up to her.

"Aile, where are you going?" he quickly questioned in worry. "Aile… Aile?! What are you doing?!"

When she reached the command room door, Aile turned around to give Vent one last chilling glare before opening up the door. As loud as she could, Aile announced to Prairie; "I'm fighting the last two Pseudoriods alone, Commander."

Immediately, Prairie swung her chair around to face the twins while letting out a surprised, "Excuse me?" at the same time Vent screeched, "WHAT?!" But Aile stood firm in her decision, a fierce burning in her eyes that alerted others that she was not joking and that her mind had been made up.

"I don't have a family." she chillingly informed them, looking directly at Vent in doing so. "Therefore, I have nothing to lose."

"But..."

"If I'm hurt, then you'd have bragging rights on knowing me better than me." she told him simply enough.

"Aile, I don't want you to..."

"We already know what you want." Aile seethed to her twin. "This is what _I_ want. What _you_ want doesn't matter anymore."

"Aile… please, don't do this..."

Prairie looked from Aile to Vent and back again, almost certain that she had no reason to approve the action if it was the result of an argument between them. Likewise, she had no reason to reject the request as Aile's training scores were more than impressive.

"Alright." Prairie agreed, netting another "WHAT?!" from Vent. Not being the commander she was without selective hearing, Prairie then added, "Vent can help by overseeing your progress, very similar to how I've been monitoring you."

"Prairie you can't do this!" Vent shouted again, much louder than the last few times, desperation growing even faster knowing that he was losing the discussion. This was when Prairie decisively turned to the boy and said to him, completely devoid of emotion,

"If being an Operator for Aile's mission seems to be a problem for you, then you can take an extended recess from your duties here. What you've achieved in 72 hours is more than what we Guardians have finished in a year. Perhaps the time could allow you to calm your nerves?"

Every muscle in Vent's body shook. His feet shuffled backwards without his permission toward the door, and then, in a quick autonomous decision, Vent turned around and ran.

. . .

Once Fleuve finished taking care of the Biometals, Aile was first to claim Model L and F back before heading to the transerver. Waiting for her there was Vent.

"Be careful." he said to her quietly. Choosing to ignore him, somewhat, Aile said nothing to Vent as she stepped on the transerver and entered Area A's coordinates. But as it started up, Aile then turned to Vent.

"I'll try." she promised before the transerver took her to Area A.

' _You can access Area J through Area A-2._ ' Model L informed Aile in a knowing tone. ' _I can't wait to get back into the water again with someone who knows how to handle my power properly._ '

' _You and your fetish with water._ ' Model F snarled, ' _Do things ever change?_ '

' _And what about your pyromania?!_ ' Model L shot back, sounding highly miffed.

"Guys, we have a mission to complete." Aile then intervened. "Do you have to argue right now?"

' _Worked well enough for you and Vent, didn't it?_ ' Model F questioned without skipping a beat. ' _We're a lot closer to you two than what you think. Or haven't realized yet. Something like that- I don't know anymore._ '

"We still have a mission to complete." Aile reminded them as she started to make her way through Area A. "Model L, can you help me find Area J?"

' _Sure kid. Just keep following this pathway, and there'll be a cave…_ '

. . .

Meanwhile, miles away in Area P, Vent was walking up to the main entrance of Giro Express alone. This was the only place Vent knew, even when running away. Working from muscle memory, Vent made his way up to the dorms and located his own bedroom. He tried to turn the knob but quickly found that someone had locked it. Confused and numb at the realization, Vent tried harder to open the door, soon enough finding himself nearly beating against it relentlessly.

Some time after that, someone was trying to get him away from the door, shouting, "Vent, stop it! Snap out of it dude! What's wrong with you?!"

"Let me in my room!" Vent demanded, still trying to pound at his door before whoever his interventionist was turned him around to face them. It took a few moments of delayed memory for Vent to recognize that it had been Sho.

"Snap out of it Vent!" Sho demanded. "Because, so help me, I'm five seconds away from slapping some kind of sense into you!"

Vent stared at his friend as he slowly began to think clearer. Just barely, the traces of early tears started to lace in the boy's eyes. Hoping that his friend was in a more clear set of mind, Sho then asked,

"Where you've been buddy? Boss and you left pretty early that morning, and he left some note about how if he didn't come back then it was my time to take over the business. And then late yesterday some weirdos calling themselves the Guardians said that Boss had been caught in a Maverick raid and you just up and disappeared? What happened out there dude?"

The human boy didn't answer his Reploidic friend for awhile. Eventually, he looked Sho in the eye and said, "Please Sho, just let me into my room. I'll tell you what I know later, but for now... I just need to sleep."


	20. Recoveries

Aile had never thought much on her opinions of these Pseudoroids before now, standing before some weird looking jellyfish-type one. He didn't seem as old as he looked, she decided, but that didn't make him any less of a nuisance.

"Are you the great Mega Man that keeps trying to interfere with our plans?" he snorted at her. "I suppose it's asking too much to expect someone so young to understand what we're trying to do."

"Wanna bet?" Aile challenged with a smirk. The Psuedoroid looked down on her with immense disdain.

"You should respect your elders and listen to us old folk!" he then patronized. "There are many lessons to be learned when the young sit back and do as they're told!"

"You're asking for respect when you're going around hiding the truth from people?" Aile then pointed out, getting rather tired of the Pseudoroid in particular. She never liked being looked down on- Vent was one thing, this guy was another. Aile gave a small snort just thinking about it. "Yeah, you're a great role model," she even retorted. The Pseudoroid seemed to match a bit of her humor and let out a chuckle of his own.

"Sometimes ignorance is bliss little one!" he declared. "I am the Model L Pseudoroid, Leganchor. It looks like I'll have to teach you some respect."

"Right..." Aile mumbled to herself as she rearranged Model F's firepower output. The Pseudoroid activated its side turbines in an attempt to suck her inside, but Aile was quick and just barely got out of the way- precisely aiming her buster rounds at Leganchor's middle. The Pseudoroid could not move, making Aile's job much easier, and she finished him up in no time.

"Why..." the Pseudoroid bemoaned as his body started to fail. "Why do you fight so hard? Why do you risk your life for those fools? Wisdom is wasted… on the young..."

Aile turned away for a moment as the Pseudoroid combusted, leaving behind the rest of Model L's data and the disk that contained the rest of information Vent found earlier. Model L's data floated over to them as soon as Aile switched over- there was a momentary surge through the Biometal, then a comforted sound by Model L to confirm everything was back online properly.

' _How could anyone give my power to someone like that!?_ ' the Biometal then huffed indignantly to no one in particular. To Aile, she said, ' _I'm sorry sweetie, it'll take some time to recover the password. I'll make sure it's available before you have to take on Model W._ '

"No worries." the girl smiled before retrieving the data disk. She looked over the disk carefully, checking for any scratches or damage that might have corrupted the data inside. The disk was perfectly in tact. Safely tucking it away, Aile made her way to the transerver to go back to Guardian HQ.

Once she arrived, the girl made a stiff beeline to the computer room, where Fleuve was waiting.

"Hello there Aile." Fleuve greeted with a small smile. "What brings you here?"

"I have the information Prairie sent me to get." the girl replied, holding out the data disk. "I thought that we could retrieve the data here."

"Oh! Yes, we can do that." the small Reploid agreed with a nod of his head. "Let's call the Commander too, she may want to see the data as well."

. . .

Prairie arrived in the computer room shortly after Fleuve called her.

"Alright." the commander ordered. "Sort through the data. Let's see what secrets that disk is hiding, and if it contains Sis's whereabouts."

"Yes Commander." Fleuve agreed as he started up the data. On the screen, the message started to play;

 _Our recon unit was wiped out by one of our own; Serpent. Some of us have also come into contact with the fragment, so I don't understand the reason why Serpent was the only one affected. Thinking back, he was always the one most interested in the Model W fragment. Maybe… maybe one thing was different: he was a Maverick raid survivor. His passion for research must have been linked to his fear. Model W must have been able to manipulate his emotions… I've never heard of a Maverick that powerful. When he vanished, Serpent erased the research data and took the Biometal with him. Unfortunately, we now know that Model W has the power to create an enemy much more terrifying than the Mavericks. However, that still leaves the question of what Model W is after… I only hope that our sacrifice bought the commander enough time to escape. I don't have much longer. I pray that this data doesn't fall into the wrong hands._

For several moments after the data ended, everyone went silent. It was Prairie who spoke up, in a soft whisper,

"They… sacrificed themselves to make sure she got away..." The commander looked away for a moment as her mind reeled. "She might even be…"

Fleuve walked over the Prairie and gave her a reassuring pat. "Serpent knew what the peoples' reaction would be if they knew the truth." he said to her, sternly. "We'll find her some day, after seeing this data I'm almost positive of it. But for now, Commander, we have other things on our plate."

Prairie looked up at Fleuve and offered a smile. "You're right." she agreed, straightening herself up a little. "We have bigger things at stake than worrying about Sis- I know she can take care of herself if she needed to."

"That'a girl." the smaller Reploid grinned. Both of them then turned to Aile.

"One Biometal left, Aile." Prairie instructed. "Your mission details have already been added to the transerver. Go knock them dead."

. . .

Vent had tried to sleep, but every moment was filled with a horrifying nightmare that seemed more like a memory. Or maybe it was the other way around? Eventually, he drudged himself out of his room and went to find Sho. He found him in Girouette's bedroom, much to Vent's dulled out anger. For a moment, Sho didn't seem to notice Vent's presence until he looked up. Immediately, Sho started to explain himself,

"Boss's computer has most of the business stuff on it. I keep meaning to transfer it to a different interface so I don't have to keep intruding on his stuff… Staying in here makes me think of things I really don't want to- you know?"

Vent absently nodded his head, although he did not.

"So," Sho then started, pushing himself away from the desk a bit, "You gonna start working here again, or will you leave to where ever you disappeared to?"

"I have to go back." Vent informed his friend, a bit darker than what he had intended.

"When?"

"Soon."

"Alright then..." Sho muttered under his breath as he started to get up. "I've gotta go check on everyone else to make sure they're doing their share. If you leave before the work day's over, come track me down and let me know you're leaving. Alright?"

Vent gave a small nod before Sho carefully scooted past him to get to the main warehouse. From there, the boy stood at the door of his caretaker's bedroom for some time before finally deciding to come in. He sat himself down at the desk and stared at the computer monitor. Sho had left it on, apparently. Even though Vent knew that nothing of real importance would be on it, he started to go through the computer's contents regardless.


	21. Hug From a Ghost

Now Aile could understand Vent's dislike of being blown at by missiles: being chased by active lava flow wasn't very fun either. She made a mental note to apologize to him later for making fun of him. When she entered the room that the Pseudoroid was meant to be in, she was greeted with nothing but dirt. Suddenly, a small rubble from underneath of her made Aile look down, when she realized that the Pseudoroid was underground and now making its way up to her, she quickly jumped out of the way. Emerging from the ground was a small, mole-like Pseudoroid that didn't seem to notice her for a moment. When it did, it gave her a cold, unfriendly glare dead in the eye.

"Oh… it's you." the Pseudoroid grumbled. "You're one of those clods goin' around and stealin' the Biometal. I could feel your presence a mile away..."

For a moment, Aile found herself rather impressed at such an ability, before remembering her duties. The Pseudoroid continued its spiel though, with or without her interest.

"Lord Serpent said there is an even more powerful Biometal lingering, close close to the ground. I've been diggin' around for it all day. But! Nothin' is comin' up! I am the Model F Pseudoroid, Flammole. I'll take ya down and the Biometal you stole will be back, safe in our hands!"

With a cackle, the Pseudoroid went back underground in an attempt to get Aile from under, but she was ready and moved out of the way- Flammole drilled with enough force that he kept moving forward into the low ceiling, allowing Aile to fire at him. When the Pseudoroid started to attack her on the ground, she carefully dodged each attack and retaliated with precise slashes from Model Z's blade.

"I see now..." Flammole wheezed as his system shut down, "You weren't the one I sensed. It musta been… Model W? Or… is it somethin' else entirely…?" In this thought, the Pseudoroid gave in to his damage and combusted. Aile switched over to Model F to retrieve the rest of its data shortly after the debris cleared. The data returned to Model F, much to his glee.

' _What a waste that a loser like that had my power!_ ' Model F even chuckled to himself. To Aile, he then said (she could see in her mind's eye that he was still snickering at the ordeal), ' _Sorry, but it'll be some time before I can recover the password. Don't worry though kid, I'll get it for you._ '

"Take your time." Aile encouraged. "Now we just need to report back to Prairie."

As Aile worked her way back to the transerver, Model X, at the back of her mind, inquired, ' _I wonder how Vent is doing._ '

For a moment, Aile stopped. She had forgotten about Vent…

' _One of us should have stayed behind with him._ '

"Rush would watch him." Aile protested. "He's not completely alone."

' _Pfft, that mutt?!_ ' Model F snickered, ' _The thing's got the loyalty of a Sour Patch Kid; here one minute, gone the other and no one knows what side he's on._ '

' _Regardless,_ ' Model X then interrupted, moving Model F out of the way, ' _The next time we see Vent, we should apologize. Things were said that we didn't really mean. You two would make an excellent team if you would just work together. It hurts me to see you two fight like that…_ '

"I'll apologize when I see him again." Aile promised the Biometal as she entered the transerver room. "The poor guy, he's lost practically everyone close to him. But I've never had anyone like that. No one I can remember anyway. I don't know what that's like… I'll apologize to him Model X, promise."

From the back of her mind, she could feel the Biometal smile. It wasn't until later that Aile realized Model Z was purposely trying to hold its opinions back, no matter how much it was starting to irritate him. For now though, Aile finished the mission report and received her next orders from Prairie.

. . .

Vent had tried to go to sleep again when Prairie sent him a call through his headset.

"Aile has retrieved the last of the Biometal fragments. Your extended recess is over so we can regroup and prepare. Please head back to HQ for further instructions."

"Sure Prairie." Vent agreed before ending the call. Before he went back, he tried to find Sho to tell him that he was leaving, as promised.

"You leaving already?" Sho asked with a smile- it seemed a bit forced, but for what it was worth, he was just as alone as Vent was now. But Sho had to take care of Giro Express, while Vent did whatever he did when he disappeared.

"Yep." the boy agreed dully.

"Well then, don't be a stranger next time, alright?" Sho offered, giving Vent a hearty pat on the back. "If current trends keep up, every man, woman, and Reploid I can get would be a big help around here. I just hope you'd listen to me better than you could Boss!" Sho gave a small chuckle, but Vent wasn't buying it. Leaving his friend there, Vent went to the nearest transerver and transported back to Guardian HQ.

Stepping out of Guardian's transerver, Vent made his way to the commander room without much enthusiasm. He felt so… drained. He wasn't used to feeling like that. Has he ever felt like this before?

Whatever the case, he ran into Aile on the way and she looked at him as if he was a ghost. Her next reaction was the question, "Are you alright?"

"Yeah," was what Vent told her without looking her in the eye, "Just a bit tired, I guess."

Aile looked at him for a moment before getting out Model X, Model Z, and Model H and handing them over to Vent. For the longest time, he looked at the Biometals, then at her with a confused glance.

"I can't pretend to know what it's like to lose your family so quickly," she then hastily explained. "But you can't expect me to empathize just as quickly. So… to make amends, I want you to keep those Biometals. They'll help you, I think."

"Aile, I..."

"Model H could help because he reminds me of you a bit. You'd be a pretty great leader if you set your mind to it! And… and Model Z, I think he'd help you because he was close to Giro. Right? He's guided Giro though some hard times, I bet, so maybe he could help you too."

"Aile..."

"And Model X..."

"Aile."

"You need to have him because-"

" _Aile_."

"Because-"

"Aile, _stop_." Vent told her, a certain tone in his voice making the girl freeze. "I'm not taking Model X. We agreed you'd keep him. Didn't we? You need him more than I do."

But that was when Aile looked Vent in the eye. Her green eyes stared at him with determination and a few degrees of defiance.

"No." she told him in a still, but certain voice. "You know why? It's because I'm not the one that looks like they got run over by a truck. I'm not the one who couldn't sleep on vacation because the only place they knew they could go was also the place where everyone they knew died. I'm not the one who needs some form of love because his sister lacks the empathy to. _You_ need Model X more than I do, Vent, and I won't take no as an answer."

For a moment, Vent opened his mouth to debate, but closed it just as quickly. Pocketing the other two Biometals, he held on to Model X tightly as he looked at it. Aile looked on, silently goading him into merging with Model X. He found himself giving in as he got into his merging pose, shouted "Mega Merge!" and allowed the welcoming embrace of Model X's armor as it covered every portion of his body.

A hug.

Model X was giving Vent a hug.

As the Merge's transformation ended, Vent admitted to feeling better than what he had been. Noticing the difference as well, Aile gave a bright smile at him before suddenly remembering something. She quickly took a hold of Vent's hand and started to drag him toward her.

"Come on!" she told him, "Prairie's waiting for us!"

Although Model X had made Vent feel better, his mind still hadn't caught up to what Aile said until she dragged him to the commander's room. When she realized their presence, Prairie turned her chair around to address them face to face. In her lap was her cat doll- the Reploid gently rubbed one of its ears as if in thought.

"You two have done great work these past few days." the commander informed them with a light smile. "We've succeeded in recovering the content on the data disc you found in the research lab." But that was when Prairie's smile seemed to fade into a more worried expression. Her voice even lowered a little as she revealed, "It was left behind by Sis after all."


	22. By Default

Her voice had been rather still as she said it, although she had known it was her sister's message.

"What was on it?" came the first reaction from Vent.

"It was a report or something on the Biometal, wasn't it?" Aile then chimed in.

Prairie took a breath in before telling them, "The data comes in two parts. One part describes Model W, Model X, Model Z… Everything about the Biometal, including its true nature. The other part is a message. It's a message that… I'm not entirely sure how Sis was able to predict it..."

Getting lost in her thoughts, Prairie then went silent as she thought it over. Aile and Vent, too, were quiet as they patiently waited for Prairie to explain further what this message was. To their faint dismay, she did not- instead she looked at them.

"We did discuss how you two are not human, but you're definitely not Reploid either; didn't we?"

The blue duo gave a mirrored nod in agreement.

"Our mom was a human woman, named Aero Sephira," Vent spoke up. "She died early because some deranged Reploid thought it would weaken our dad. She ended up becoming the mother of Cyber-Elves… or something, and the rest I can't remember because it's basically history class from there."

"Did we ever discuss who your father was?" the commander then questioned, looking over both of them passively.

"Didn't… someone mention Mega Man X?" Aile then asked, her face twisted into one of confusion and uncertainty. "The name… it's really familiar."

"Yeah," Vent agreed, "Like it was said in history class a lot."

"Mega Man X..." Prairie then sighed heavily, "The Father of Reploids, the true leader of the once grand Neo Arcadia, the supposed last creation of the 21st century genius, Thomas Hikari… And, by all rights, he is your biological father."

Vent and Aile only looked at Prairie; with everything else that has happened to them, this only seemed as a dull surprise. Not satisfied with their reactions, the commander continued;

"Before Sis took over your development, there was a man who tried to conquer the world. In order to carry out his mad scheme, he created a giant battle station in space known as Ragnarok. He fused with Ragnarok, but he was challenged by a hero and defeated. Ragnarok broke apart and fell through the atmosphere, burning brightly like a shooting star in the sky. That image will be burned into my mind forever..."

Vent's face scrunched as he thought this information over. "Then that means Model W is..."

"The soul of that man contained in the fragment of Ragnarok- that's Model W." Prairie affirmed. "Sis recognized its existence and set about to create something capable of fighting the threat. She used her research to create the Biometal, using the powers of legendary heroes from eras long past."

"Mega Man X was one of those heroes. Wasn't he?" Aile then questioned. Her face was unreadable, but you could tell that she had pieced together something important in her mind. She looked over at Vent -who was still Merged with Model X- and seemed to become a bit more somber. "When I went to save the people, Model X started to say something, but was cut off. Then there's the way we feel just by holding Model X, it's like knowing that you're loved and wanted. Merging with him… it's like a hug- a long, loving, and kinda saddened hug..."

Vent looked at Aile and gave her a funny look. Sure, he could agree to Merging with Model X as receiving a hug, but he never would have analyzed it like that…

"And then there's the way that we have a different form when using Model Z." Aile soon continued, looking back to Prairie as she said it. "It's because of Model X, or Mega Man X, isn't it? Since we have his DNA, we can't Merge with the other Biometals normally. By default, we're always Merged with Model X in some way, so the way we Merge with the other Biometals is different. Very, very different."

For awhile, Prairie could do nothing but stare at Aile. Admittedly, the commander hadn't thought of the logistics of their Merging too much and just rolled with it. With the idea that their relation to Model X could prevent them from Merging normally, it could bring out a whole new plethora of issues that might take them into harm's way in Model W's wake.

To break this uneasy train of thought, Vent then said to Model X, "Model X, do you know what happened to Prairie's sister?"

Prairie and Aile stared at him. Of all things to ask the Biometal at a time like this…

' _I'm sorry. I don't remember anything._ ' the Biometal informed him, seeming a bit timid in doing so, knowing that it was the target of a rather heated argument. ' _All our memories after our creation were erased._ '

"Maybe that's why you get falling back on older ISOs." Aile argued, folding her arms in thought. "Something is overriding the erasure."

' _Whatever the case,_ ' Model X insisted, not being very subtle about wanting to change the subject, ' _We have assembled all of the passwords. With them, you two can enter the ruins where the Model W core lies._ '

That snapped everyone's attention back to the matter at hand.

"They must have been digging for awhile." Vent realized.

"They might even be close to the core by now..." Aile agreed.

"We have to go!" the both of them declared before turning on their heels to bolt out the door.

. . .

Aile was the one to remind Vent to accept the mission at the transerver, but he was the one that had the better idea on where they were going. The duo didn't waste a moment getting to the core- blasting anything they couldn't easily maneuver around and pausing only a moment to make sure that they were both still together. When they finally reached the door, the duo looked up at it in exhaustion and a bit of awe. The door wasn't much different from others the duo had encountered, but it seemed a bit older. Around the door were seven orbs with a data screen in the middle. But something about the door just seemed… off.

"Model W..." Aile eventually spoke up in a soft voice, "It's close. I can feel it..."

Vent remained silent. His mind had numbed but odd words still floated around in protest to be understood: _Neo Arcadia and Juno. Neo Arcadia and Giro. Neo Arcadia and_ _Prairie's sis. Neo Arcadia and_ _new bodies…_

The only thing that broke his train of thought was when Model Z announced, ' _We'll open the door when you two are ready._ '

"I'm ready." Aile almost immediately decided. Vent looked at her for a moment before looking back at the door.

"Ready as I'll ever be." Vent soon agreed.

' _Everyone,_ ' Model X then resonated, ' _Input your passwords._ '

Understanding the cue, the six Biometals floated out of Vent and Aile's pockets, and started to circle the duo as if they were trying to protect them from the power of Model W's core. Model H was the first to glow brighter than the others.

' _I am the wind that blows through the sky,_ Ventus Airus _._ ' he declared before he started to dim, and one of the data screens hummed to life. Model F started to glow next.

' _I am the fire that brings heat to all life,_ Flamma Weis _._ ' Model F announced before he dimmed as well, another one of the data screens humming to life. The same pattern followed with the other Biometals.

' _I am the water that flows across the land,_ Glacius Passio _._ ' Model L had recited.

' _I am the shadow that never leaves the side of justice,_ Umbra Profess _._ ' Model P finished.

Four of the seven data screens were now lit and humming with life. On who would go next, Model X and Model Z seemed to nudge each other until Model X gave in.

Like the other Biometals, he started to glow before enunciating, ' _I am the light that illuminates all possibilities,_ Lumine Infinitus _._ ' This then allowed Model Z to finish off the passwords by declaring,

' _I am the courage that fights for beliefs,_ Fortitude Creed _._ '

Two data screens affirmed the confirmation for the last two Biometals' passwords, then the six lighted data screens hummed a bit louder while the last data screen slowly came to life. With all the screens alive, Vent and Aile heard a faint unlocking sound from the door and it opened to them shortly after.

' _Let's go._ ' Model X informed the twins, an inner vision of him smiling at them kindly, but holding a slight line of worry.

' _The rest is up to you._ ' Model Z added. He too seemed to be smiling at the duo from the back of their minds, and while Model X held worry, Model Z had the faintest trace of fear.

Vent and Aile looked at each other.

"We can do this." Aile told her brother, holding her hand out to him for a handshake. Vent looked over her and soon found himself with a small smile etched across his face.

"Yeah," he agreed, taking Aile's hand. "Yeah we can."


	23. Stubborn Restraint

The twins wasted no time working their way through the ruins. The further they ventured, the more twisted the ruins seemed to become; tiles peeking out from the ground were colored oddly and emitting a glow similar in time to a heartbeat, strange floating crystals that seemed to beg to be destroyed, and even worse- a low concentration of Mavericks.

"Vent, I think there's an alternate pathway around here." Aile, currently using Model P, informed her brother at one point.

Vent (who was a little behind her, about to take a ladder down into the lower areas) looked over at her with a tilt of head head. "Where is it?" he asked, then walking over to her to get a look himself.

"It's blocked off..." Aile noted. She pointed to a cracked wall in front of her. "Can you use Model F to crack that wall down?"

"Sure." agreed Vent with a shrug, changing into Model F in doing so. With two precise, charged punches, Aile's evaluation proved true as the wall crumpled away and revealed a small crawlspace.

"Where does it go?" Vent questioned as he tried to peer into it.

"Down." came the answer. "Quickly too."

The boy glanced over at his sister with a slight twinge of fear. "I'm going to take the ladder..." he told her.

"I'll go this way." Aile both agreed and argued. "We'll meet each other on the other side." and without waiting for his response, she went in.

The drop wasn't quite as long as she first thought it was, and Aile soon found herself on the other side of the pathway Vent took. Knowing that Vent was just a ways back, Aile took the initiative to continue forward without him.

' _What do you think you're doing?_ ' Model X reprimanded almost directly after. ' _You promised Vent that you would meet up with him on the other side of the pathway._ '

"I didn't say _where_ on the other side." Aile argued, continuing to move forward. "So, unless said otherwise, we would meet back up at the transerver. It's Guardian protocol."

' _And when did you learn this?_ '

"Oh, way back when." the girl hummed to herself. "Muguet was very thorough on who and what the Guardians were when I asked."

' _Aile, please don't do this to Vent…_ '

But the girl was already progressing further into the ruins without restraint.

. . .

"How much longer is it going to take to extract Model W, Pandora?" Serpent impatiently questioned as the former.

"It will awaken soon..." came the distant answer. "Patience."

"That is not what I asked," Serpent grumbled, "I said..."

"I heard." Pandora remarked, pausing for a moment to glare at him darkly. "And I gave you… my answer. Patience Serpent… exercise a little patience..."

But the older looking Reploid had nothing of the sort; the Model W was fueling his desires, his wants, his very nerves as if it no longer belonged to him. But that was ridiculous, Serpent knew full well that he had control over Model W's effects. It chose him. It _belonged_ to him. It was his right to control and not the other way around.

Breaking him from his thoughts was the sound of the door open at one end of the chamber. Serpent looked that way and saw a blue figure step through with a weapon drawn. It took him a few moments to recognize them, and when he did, he gave a snide smile.

"Well, well; it looks like you found me." he greeted the Mega Man. The armored girl said nothing at him and trained the buster at him without wavering. This wasn't the original Chosen One for Model X, was it? Serpent didn't particularly care who had that worthless Biometal, but wasn't it a boy earlier? Regardless, it ultimately did not matter to him.

"It's a shame you're too late." Serpent then taunted to the Blue Mega Man, gesturing to Model W with pride. "Witness the power to control the world! The _true_ form of Model W!"

At first, the Mega Man had no idea what he was talking about until she looked over at the weapon. She staggered back in shock and surprise -a reaction that Serpent had deeply enjoyed- immediately lowering her weapon in doing so. The child froze in staring that Model W.

"Do you feel it?!" Serpent then thundered in victory. "Its glorious presence is starting to rise! Even the precious Biometal in your possession is insignificant to the might of Model W! Finally, the power is mine! All of it!"

"You're insane." the Blue Mega Man observed with a measure of horror in her voice.

"Pandora!" he commanded in a brute anger. Diligently, the younger Reploid teleported over to him. "This… _special_ young lady has honored us with her presence," he then said to Pandora, "Make sure to take _good_ care of her."

Pandora did not answer, instead looking the Blue Mega Man up and down. It was enough for Serpent so he left with little else to say. With his plan in its final stages now, there was still much to do in these delicate times.

"You are not him." Pandora softly said to Aile. "I had expected… no, _wanted_ him to be here. Instead of… _you_..."

"Who are you talking about?" Aile demanded, positioning herself to strike once more. "Do you mean Vent? What could you possibly want from Vent?!"

"He knew her..." the Reploid then went on, "More than I ever did… I wanted to see him... _suffer_ the same way I have. Suffering… because she's gone now..."

Suddenly, the door Aile appeared from started to make thumping sounds.

"Aile?" the voice of Vent tried to shout through the door. "Aile are you in there?! Aile, the door; the door's locked!"

Aile took a wild look at the door before turning back to Pandora. The Reploid's eyes now glinted with a burning rage as she started to float higher into the air.

"Mega Man..." the Reploid spoke in a haunting voice, "You will _not_ … interfere..."

"Aile!" Vent shouted once more through the door before Pandora vanished with a blink.

The Reploid reappeared soon after, much higher than Aile, and withdrew her beam wand. The weapon started to glow, charging up for an attack. Aile stood at the ready, prepared to take on whatever this crazy Reploid intended to do to her.

On the other end of the door, the sounds of the two fighting was going to drive Vent insane. Desperate, the boy looked around for anything that could let him inside to help Aile. But with no obvious locks on his end of the door, Vent could only wait helplessly; if there was anything he found out about himself during this adventure, it was the fact that he did not like being helpless.

"We need to open the door." he grumbled at some point, mostly to himself. "But how?"

' _I have bombs._ ' Model F offered.

' _Bombs will only draw more Mavericks to us…_ ' Model Z reminded them.

' _I didn't say I wanted to use 'em._ '

' _It's highly likely that the door will reopen once they stop fighting._ ' Model H offered, despite it being rather obvious. 'T _he sounds on the other side indicate that it will happen soon. Patience Vent, I'm sure Aile is-_ '

"I need to get in _now_!" Vent demanded before punching the door with every force in him. That was when the door decided to open, leaving Vent in a confused daze for a moment before barging on in. Despite Aile looking rather fine -a bit tired, but not too scratched from the fight- Vent ran next to her and tried to offer his help. She shrugged him off, choosing to keep her focus on Pandora.

Vent's presence had distracted Pandora for a moment. The longer she held her gaze on the boy, the more fire started to glow in her eyes. It took the rumble of Model W's sudden shaking that reminded the three of the task at hand. They all stared as the giant hunk of metal started to rise up and out of the ground.

"The wheel of fate… is in motion..." Pandora then declared to the twins, looking at where Model W had once been. "No one can stop… our destiny of destruction… Not you… Not Serpent… No one..."

Aile and Vent shot Pandora an inquisitive glance just as she teleported away. A few minutes after, the rumbling stopped and immediately after that Aile turned around to Vent to slap him.

"What was that-"

"Thanks to you, I couldn't stop them from digging up Model W!"

For a moment, all Vent could do was stare at her before getting mad as well. "We were supposed to do this mission together!" he shouted back.

"Vent, Aile!" Prairie suddenly spoke over their headsets. "There is a massive outbreak of Mavericks in the western region of Area D! The readings are off the chart and interfering with our ability to track Model W!"

Aile gave Vent a venomous glare that he chose to ignore.

"I've added the mission data for the Mavericks," Prairie continued. "So get your shit together, start acting like a team, and begin the mission ASAP! I'll do what I can from here to get a fix on Model W's signature."

After Prairie ended the line, Aile and Vent remained still. They were both stubborn, so there was no way that one was going to admit that the other had been correct. Eventually it was Aile who said, "Sorry for slapping you." and it was enough for them, for now.


	24. WILD FANG

Despite the increased rise of Mavericks, the path leading to the highway was rather quiet. Aile slipped by many minor annoyances with Model P, while Vent sped past them using Model H's flight thrusters as extra powered dash boosters.

Area D was the highest point of the highway, offering beautiful scenic views to the rest of the city. As the duo passed a popular outlook, Vent happened to see something in the corner of his eye and looked out to the city below them.

"Aile, look." Vent fearfully said, drawing his sister's attention to the city. Annoyed for a moment at the distraction, the girl soon went silent at witnessing the scene beneath them. In the air, multiple Maverick ships were dropping shuttles carrying Galleons into the residential areas. Some of the shuttles did not release Galleons, but the ones that did had the lesser Reploids come out in droves.

"We need to stop them." she agreed. "Come on, let's not waste anymore time than we need to."

Vent still stood mesmerized by the chaos until he finally snapped out of it and continued moving.

The further they went, however, the more damaged the world around them was becoming. Screams from the civilians in faint echo could just barely be heard in the twins' ears, the smoke and fire from the destruction from the buildings below were starting to sting their eyes and fill their lungs. As the highway leveled out with the ground again, Aile and Vent were stopped by the sudden teleport of Prometheus and Pandora, standing perfectly in their way.

"Should've known..." Vent grumbled upon seeing them.

"You two are the ones behind this..." Aile finished with an equally bitter tone.

"Well, we've finally drawn the curtain and have arrived to our final act!" Prometheus snickered at them. "All of the chosen Mega Men are together for the grand finale. We are all the same; Pandora and I, you lucky little _freaks_ , and Serpent- just five lives brought together by some cursed fate that hangs over our heads. It is just as Model W had foreseen."

"We're nothing like you!" Aile and Vent declared at the same time, an act that rather amused Prometheus.

"You are… and yet, you are not..." Pandora entertained. "We are all… a Mega Man…. Holder of the power… Controller of the Biometal..."

"But you're talking about destroying each other to fulfill some kind of future a cursed rock decided on?" Aile questioned.

"Biometal is... a conscious entity." Pandora then informed Aile with a rather slow blink. "It can... control the weak."

"Boss wasn't weak!" Vent found himself shouting at the Repoid duo. "He never would have let Model W take over him!"

"Ah," Prometheus then jeered, "But seeing the death of our loved ones inherently makes us weaker. And when we have to slay them ourselves…? Well… Let's just say that Model W just _loves_ the nourishment."

"What about Serpent?!" Vent then demanded. To this, the Reploid let out a nasty chuckle.

"Did you really think Serpent had the willpower to control Model W!? He is just a simple pawn!"

"You've been using Serpent this entire time?!" Aile then questioned.

"It's too late…" Pandora interrupted in a passive voice. "Model W… is about to awaken."

"We'll keep you occupied while you wait Mega Men!" Prometheus announced before fading before their eyes. Pandora followed suit shortly after, not breaking eye contact with Vent in doing so. The boy had been caught off guard by the Reploid's dark glare that he had failed to notice that Prometheus had reappeared above him; scythe in hand, the Reploid dove for the boy's head, stopped by Aile pushing Vent out of the way.

"Thanks." Vent mumbled as Prometheus disappeared again and Pandora appeared in his place, high above them again.

"We're not done yet." Aile quickly informed him as Pandora raised her wand, summoning several balls of pure electricity that zig and zagged their way to the twins. In a moment of identical thinking, Aile and Vent gave each quick nods before heading to opposite ends of the battlefield. When Pandora saw that her attacks did nothing to them, she switched positions with Prometheus. With the twins in opposite positions, they were able to defend against any attack the Reploid duo threw at them- both sides managed to cause a good measure of damage to the opposite party.

Prometheus and Pandora were not idiots, and could almost say that -while smart enough in its own right- Aile and Vent's strategy was so predictable that they could easily be backed into a corner. It did not stop the twins from fighting, and a standstill was reached when the Reploid duo simply stopped fighting knowing that they had Aile and Vent were they wanted them. Prometheus took his stand in front of Aile, giving her a snide smirk as he pointed his scythe fairly close to her face. Pandora stood in front of Vent, holding her wand close to her body but gripping it tightly in an emotion Vent couldn't quite decipher at the moment.

"Just… who _are_ you if you're not in league with Serpent?" Vent finally questioned to Pandora. Despite the rather cold, and equally venomous, glare he wished she'd stop giving him, there just something familiar about her that he couldn't quite place. It was as if he had seen her in a picture before, but not as… deadly. Before he could properly think it through, the female Reploid answered him with a dark;

"We are… the voice of Model W."

"And what are you trying to accomplish?" Aile burst. "Why do we have to be involved in this asinine plan?"

Prometheus only gave her a cruel laughter. "If you want to know the truth, you'll have to fight!" he declared. "You. Serpent. The citizens of this country. _Us_. We are all just players on a stage acting out our parts just as Model W has written them: Pawns! Pawns on His perfectly and delicately placed board!"

With even more laughter, Prometheus teleported away. Pandora remained where she was for a few moments longer to study Vent, then she gave a rather disgusted noise as she spun on her heels and teleported away. Taking a moment to wonder why the female Reploid was so interested in him, Vent turned to face Aile. She did the same and the two looked at each other just as a small ping came over the headsets, alerting them to an incoming message from Prairie.

"The Maverick activity is finally subsiding." she announced. "You must have taken out their leader!"

"The fight's not over yet." Aile replied. "Have you managed to narrow down Model W's location?"

"I'm sorry," the Reploid apologized. "We're going to need a little more time on that. In the mean time, you two should head back to Guardian HQ while we try to find it."

"Understood." Aile agreed before ending the comm line. She turned back to Vent before asking, "Are you ready to go?"

"Yeah." her brother agreed. "I… think I need to request a delivery."

. . .

The moment Aile and Vent came back to HQ, Rush immediately jumped into Aile's arms in greeting.

"Hey Rush." the girl unintentionally cooed to the pooch. "How long have you been waiting?"

The dog looked at Aile and gave her a small growl, indicated that it had been too long and that he had started to got worried about her.

"It's not like I _mean_ to forget you." she then told him as she stepped off the transerver. "There's a reason why most superheroes don't own pets you know."

The mischievous red dog howled his reply as the two left the room, leaving Aile's answer unheard to Vent. Instead, the boy remained at the transerver and started to dial a familiar number. After doing what he needed to, Vent then directed the transerver to take him close to Area G and waited outside the transerver room for his delivery. It didn't take too long before the figure of a normal Reploid quickly made his way over to him. When the figure was close enough, Vent relaxed slightly in realizing that it was Sho.

"Your packaged has arrived sir!" Sho teasingly greeted Vent with a humble salute.

"Thank you for getting it so fast Sho." he then thanked, affording a small smile.

"It took me hours to pick that stupid lock on Juno's door." Sho complained as he handed the package to Vent. "Dunno how Giro managed to lock it from the inside; But for the love of Light, Vent, I knew Boss was crushed when she disappeared, but I didn't think he was _that_ desperate to forget about her."

Knowing now that there had been more to that story, Vent only gave an absent nod.

"How much do I owe you?" the boy asked. The phrase seemed to have stunned Sho for a moment, or maybe it was just the way Vent had said it. Regardless, the Reploid then insisted,

"It's on the house. It's not like I had to go far."

Again, Vent gave another nod to show he understood. Sho gave the boy a wary side glance.

"Is… something wrong Vent?" the Reploid offered. "Anything I could help you with?"

Slowly, Vent shook his head.

"You… you know you can always talk to me Vent. Don't you?"

Vent looked up at his friend- his eyes glistening with the faint start of tears.

"Not yet." came the hoarse reply. "Maybe… Maybe later, but I… can't… Not yet."

Sho, while not quite understanding but recognizing that Vent wasn't ready to disclose everything, gave a solemn nod in response.


	25. A Slithering Serpent

Vent was at a bit of a loss on why he was so hesitant to open the package- he had already lived through a rather nasty can of worms this past week, so how was this one going to be any different?

' _Just open the stupid thing already and get this over with!_ ' Model F suddenly demanded, almost causing Vent to jump out of his skin for a moment. ' _I'd like to see what is in this thing before Prairie decides her scanners are working again._ '

' _Model F…_ ' Model H sighed, ' _You can access Vent's memories just as well as the rest of us. You know exactly what's in the package whether Vent opens it or not._ '

Model F then gave a rather miffed scoff. ' _And you know full and damn well that I don't like waiting in suspense. Just get it_ over _with Vent._ '

The boy let out a heavy sigh. "Alright," he agreed. "Alright, alright." Then he started to work to open the package. In a few moments, he was pulling out the very object Sho had to break down Juno's door to get: a photograph. The photograph wasn't too old, if his memory served him right, as Juno had brought it back with her when she returned to Giro Express.

The picture in question was not a photograph of Juno- it was a Reploid with light green hair and blood red eyes. The Reploid was positioned so that her back was slightly facing the camera, and her head was turned just slightly as if someone had caught her doing something inappropriate. The cheeks on the Reploid was flushed and her expression looked just as flustered.

' _I remember this photograph…_ ' Model Z decided to announce. ' _Girouette and Juno were discussing it when she was moving back in. She was quite fond of the picture because it was candid, and captured the (in her own words) 'natural adorableness' of that Reploid._ '

"Did Juno ever give her a name?"

' _Dora, I think. But I feel that it was implied as a nickname._ '

Knowing this information, Vent looked back at the photograph with new thoughts. If this truly was Pandora before Model W took control of her and Prometheus, then Vent was starting to see why she would be more hostile toward him. But as he tried to rationalize his enemy's hatred of him based on shared relations, another nagging thought came to mind: This was what Model W did to innocent people…

If Vent wasn't terrified of Model W before, he was pretty certain that he would be now.

. . .

Meanwhile, Aile was spending her downtime playing with Rush in the control center- Prairie didn't particularly mind, and it was mostly a way for Aile to know exactly when they found Model W's signal. At a certain point, Prairie became distracted at Aile and Rush and turned to look at them. Instead of telling them to be more quiet, she just looked at them and smiled.

"Aile..." the commander spoke up, earning the girl's attention, "I'm sorry that I keep putting Vent and your lives at jeopardy. If there had been a way for you two to meet without this war around us, trust me when I say that we would have done it. Maybe if we had, Giro wouldn't be..."

Aile tilted her head at Prairie curiously; Rush seemed oblivious to this and started to lick Aile's face happily.

"Prairie," the girl then cautiously started, "Did you have feelings for him…?"

Suddenly, Prairie's face flushed a deep red as she gave Aile a flabbergasted look. "W-what?! No! Outside of the Guardians, I… I didn't even know him. And he was… happy with Juno. And Vent. They were his entire world, and he loved them more than anything."

"But…?"

"Sis… Sis had built him. She created him to look similar to-"

"Someone you cared about." Aile cut in. "Or someone that had cared about you, and your Sis."

It took Prairie a while to answer, but eventually she nodded and agreed with, "Yeah. Someone exactly like that."

"Commander," one of the girls in operations spoke up, "We have confirmation of Model W's location."

"Pull it up on screen." Prairie requested, turning her chair around. Aile got up too, to get a better look at the screen as well. Rush trotted behind with his tail wagging eagerly. After Prairie typed in the coordinates, an image of the building in question was displayed before them.

"It's the Slither Inc. building." Aile remarked.

"Aile," Prairie then instructed, "I'm going to add the mission data to the transerver. Could you go find Vent and get there immediately?"

"Of course!" Aile agreed. "Come on Rush."

The dog let out an enthused bark as the two started to leave the control room. Before they did, Aile turned back to the commander.

"And Prairie?"

"Yes?"

"Please don't feel bad about what could or could not have happened. I'm grateful that you've given me this opportunity. It's because of you that we've been able to fight for what's important."

Before Prairie could give her humbled reply, Aile and Rush left the control room.

. . .

"Why does this place have to be so freaking gorgeous?" Aile idly bemoaned once she and Vent had entered Slither Inc. "Aren't villain lairs supposed to be dark, and horrifying, and… I dunno, menacing?"

Vent gave an absent shrug as he looked around Slither Inc's main lobby. The room was adorned with rather expensive looking chandeliers that seemed almost untouched by the Maverick activity inside the building.

"Maybe it gets worse as we go?" Vent suggested.

"Or maybe Serpent had a bigger ego than what everyone thought." Aile mumbled in return. Giving another indifferent shrug at the notion, the two continued onwards in their quest to find Serpent.

The two quickly made their way upwards in Slither Inc's vast building. They made pretty decent time until they came upon a room filled haphazardly with capsules- a small, frantically glowing orb inside each of them made the two stop and stare.

"Cyber Elves…!" Vent realized.

"Why are there so many…?" Aile questioned as well. The duo then turned to each other to see their increasingly paled complexions before quickly moving further in.

At the end of the hall was a door that led into another room, this one was also filled with far too many trapped Cyber Elves, along with a piece of Model W. Standing near Model W was Serpent, admiring the malignant Biometal thoughtfully. When he noticed Aile and Vent's entrance, he turned to them and gave a crafty sneer.

"You must be wondering why we need so many Cyber Elves to awaken Model W..." the Reploid teased to the children. "As if children like you could ever understand that! Their fright… It becomes the power that drives Model W!"

"What?!" the twins exclaimed as the ground started to shake beneath them.

Serpent only let out a satisfied chuckle as he withdrew a smaller fragment of Model W's body.

"Model W, it's time!" the insane Reploid declared as he held the Biometal high in the air. "The despair and fear of this country are yours!"

Reacting to the command, the Biometal let out a sonic screech of pain that broke all the containers in the room. Vent and Aile had to cover their ears in defense- the screech almost too deafening to ignore. The Cyber Elves that had been trapped in the containers floated to Model W with a struggling resistance, looking as if they were being pulled to Model W against their wills.

"By joining us, the weak are freed from their suffering!" Serpent continued, his pitch gaining a hysterical tone to it. "The chosen one, Mega Man, will save the people! That is the glory of Project Haven!"

"How is sacrificing the people of this country going to save them?!" Aile demanded, readying Model X's buster for a fight.

"Our power is the result of many sacrifices, child." Serpent then hissed at her. "We are the chosen ones. It is destiny for the last of our kind to rule. Model W is not about destruction; it is about rebirth and evolution! Survival of the fittest! It's the classic struggle for life!" Serpent turned to Vent before adding, "Look at you! You're only able to stand before me today thanks to the power of Model Z absorbed from that red Mega Man! Everything has been leading up to this moment. Just… us… three!"

Cackling, Serpent welcomed Model W's power as if finished absorbing the last Cyber Elves and quickly transformed into his own Mega Man armor.

"Your fear and despair combined with my joy in victory… They shall be the ultimate gift to Model W!" Serpent declared with a nasty grin before charging at the duo. Aile released her charged shot at him, just barely getting out of the way in time. The hit landed, but Serpent was still coming at them.

"Aile!" Vent unintentionally shouted, charging up the Z saber. The boy made a triangle kick at a nearby wall and managed to hit Serpent from above. The attacked stunned the Maverick for a moment before he recovered, and attempted to kick Vent with his overpowered strength.

"Hey Serpent!" Aile shouted, now Merged with Model P, "Think fast!" Without any other warning, Aile fired nothing short of a small torrent of kunais at Serpent, each one landed on him with great precision and force that it caused him to stagger back. Quickly switching to Model F, Vent charged Model F's busters to full force and unleashed a double attack that caused Serpent enough damage that he fell to the ground.

From the ground, despite being clearly beaten, the insane Reploid started to laugh.

"What's so funny, Serpent?" Aile questioned him with some hostility. Serpent didn't seem to acknowledge her as she warily started to come closer. As she walked over, she noticed something purple pulsating at Serpent's fingertips. By the time she realized what it was, the last words she could hear was Vent shouting her name, and the world going black.


	26. Things Will Change

"Aile!" Vent screamed as he ran to her, disregarding the fact that he was letting himself be vulnerable to any attacks Serpents might have had next.

Vent got to Aile's side and gently placed her in his lap. The girl lazily looked up at him before her eyes rolled to the back of her head, and Model P ended the transformation between them. It was the same way Giro had left Vent before he...

"No Aile, please…" Vent then hopelessly started to plead, "Please wake up. I can't… I can't lose anyone else. You… you're my sister! You can't… not yet… not when I've lost my parents too..."

Seeing the boy mourn made Serpent emit a low chuckle. The noise quickly caught Vent's attention and he soon replaced all his sorrow with raw anger toward the Maverick.

"Serpeeent!" the boy roared, ready to charge unrelenting at the Reploid, but his legs refused to move. If he wasn't seeing red at the moment, Vent would have realized that it was Model Z holding him back.

"It's just as Prometheus and Pandora said." Serpent snickered as he worked to stand up again. " _You_ are the final key. Right now… you are being controlled by a powerful emotion..." The Maverick raised his arms, looking as if he was making a sacrifice to some invisible god. "Emotion so powerful it exceeds even mine!"

As Serpent started cackling once again, Model W released several bright flashes that made Vent stagger back in surprise. Just as sudden, Model Z demerged from Vent causing a surge of horrifying pain to shoot through Vent's chest. The boy screamed as he fell over, clutching his head to his chest- when he looked at his hand, he expected to see blood, but instead there was a small white and red orb, surrounded in a thick purple aura, that immediately made its way to the large Model W piece.

Now finding himself extremely exhausted for some reason, Vent looked back at Serpent. "What's… going on?" he asked between heaving breaths.

"The emotion driving you now..." Serpent victoriously declared, "That emotion is not bravery! It's not born out of some sense of righteousness. It's hate. Your hate for me and everything I've taken from you!"

Vent's face quickly went pale. "What?!"

Serpent did not answer as Model W started to illuminate a deep red- bright strings of light originating from the 'eye' of Model W worked its way around Serpent's body and surrounded him with its fully charged power. Vent only happened to catch the maniacal grin the Maverick sported as the light started to pull Serpent's body into the Model W piece. Despite this, the Reploid was still able to gloat, "The new age is beginning right now before your very eyes. The age of the Mega Man… The destined ruler!"

Vent watched in a mix of awe and horror as Serpent then appeared from the top of Model W in a completely different body. It emerged from the evil Biometal like a humanoid ink figure that struggled to break free from its chains. As Serpent pulled himself further out of Model W, the larger his form became until a bright flash of light revealed a new body to be part of Serpent and Model W together. Seeing the newly Merged Serpent, Vent nearly wanted to throw up.

As Serpent's body rose into the sky, Vent's mind started to race as he unconsciously turned back to Aile. Something told him that she was still alive, just barely, but whatever Serpent did next would cause her to be in the backlash. Looking at her now, Vent could feel a part of him missing- but it wasn't because she was just barely living. It was something… inside of him; a part of who he was… or had been.

"I… was the key for Model W's awakening..." the boy mumbled under his breath. "All of the pain… All of the fighting… It was just… destiny…?"

' _Don't give up yet._ ' Model X's kind thought-speak resonated in Vent's mind.

' _Your battle is not over._ ' Model Z agreed.

"Eh?" questioned the boy as he came out from his dark thoughts, finding that Model H, Model F, Model L, and Model P were circling around him.

' _We did not lend you our power just to let you carry out some kind of petty revenge…_ ' Model H reminded Vent sternly, just as a big brother would.

' _Beating up someone just because you don't like them is nothing more than the action of a playground bully._ ' Model F chimed in.

' _Don't give in to the hate._ ' Model L encouraged. ' _If you fight the flow, you just end up swimming in place._ '

' _Even in the darkest tunnel, there is always a light at the end of it for you to follow._ ' Model P finished.

Model Z and Model X hovered into Vent's view, and for a split second, the boy saw more than just two Biometals- he saw a red legend who has seen enough wars to last several lifetimes, and a concerned ex-Maverick Hunter of a father.

' _Your power is not based on hate,_ ' Model X reminded Vent, a small vision of the Biometal's true form giving Vent a reassuring hand on his shoulder. ' _Your real power -your wellspring of bravery- lies within you!_ '

' _Look within yourself!_ ' Model Z agreed. Vent looked back at were the visions were, but saw nothing but the Biometals now as they once more Merged with him. Calmly, the boy let their combined power envelop his body and mind with positive thoughts. The other four Biometals started to circle Aile, a silent promise to protect her from danger.

"You're right." Vent sighed as his confidence came back. "I made a promise to you that day! I said I would protect the people. All of them!"

"Well then," Serpent sneered in a voice that sounded nothing like his own, "If you're so sure of yourself, let's find out which Mega Man is destined to rule the world!"

Vent looked up at Serpent and let out a rather amused chuckle. "I don't care about ruling the world." he informed the Maverick in an exact tone. "Serpent, if you want to be the Mega Man destined to rule the world, then I am the Mega Man destined to save it!"

And with that, Vent fought with his life. It took time that he didn't have, and the strategic quick thinking of the heroes before him, Vent caused Serpent's new body to reach the point of breakdown. Even though he was on his last legs, Serpent still had some words to say as his body broke apart;

"The destiny of destruction… still awaits… So long as you have hearts, hate will lurk in the shadows. It's all just a game, _his_ game. You're the one stopping progress; you're the denying change! In his game, we must move forward- we must have change! We are all pieces on the board, and the winner becomes the ruler of the world!"

' _Vent, everything is falling apart!_ ' Model X resonated in urgency. ' _You and Aile have to get out of here!_ '

Suddenly remembering that Aile was in full range of the fight, Vent quickly turned his body to get her. Just as he was about to pick her up, a chunk of metal hit Vent on the head, completely knocking him out.

The world seemed fuzzy for a moment before his vision turned to white. In the distance, a soft, kind, and familiar voice called out to him.

"You know, you always were a bit of a pain."

"Ohuh?"

Vent adjusted his eyes to the light and saw before him a Cyber Elf. It was in it's second form- the one that looked more like its original body- and when Vent recognized who it was…

"Boss!" the boy exclaimed, rushing to the Cyber Elf in an attempt to give it a hug. But he phased through as if nothing was there. Confused for a moment, Vent looked at the Cyber Elf Girouette as if it could answer his confusion, but then he remembered that Cyber Elves never could pass through solid material in the real world. The face on the Cyber Elf was expressionless.

"You never treated the clients with respect." Giro then told Vent, rather tonelessly. "You ignored me _and_ Juno on numerous occasions. You were always reckless and ran off on your own. Yeah, you were definitely a pain. You drove us crazy, but we still always cared about you. Every moment between us is a precious memory to me, and I hope it will be that way for you too later in life."

Vent looked down and was silent for several moments before asking, "What happened to her? Is she really…"

Girouette looked at the boy, and in a toneless voice, he started to say "Aile may recover, but that choice is ultimately up to-"

"No, not Aile." Vent told his caretaker. "Juno. You… you killed her because she was… she was helping the enemy. Right?"

The Cyber Elf looked down, obviously illustrating that he had, in some effort, tried to kill their friend and hated every moment of it. For the first time in his life, Vent took an observation and came to a logical conclusion from it.

"Model W was controlling her- just like it controlled you, right?"

Girouette still refused to look Vent in the eye. "Something worse than Model W," he mumbled, his fist clenching slightly at the mere thought of it. "Something that will always be a part of her now, no matter what happens to her. It was all my fault Vent, I could… _should_ have stopped her from leaving that day… I knew nothing good would come from it. And now… _now_..."

Vent stood a bit taller. In a dark, cold voice, he commanded, "Is she _dead_ Boss?"

Now Giro's face fell from regret. "I…" the Cyber Elf started, faltered for a moment, then said, "I've been told that I shouldn't tell you, and for them, I do not intend on breaking that promise. I'm sorry Vent, truly. You'll have to find out on your own. I'm not allowed to say anything."

"By who?" the boy questioned, almost demanding. "Who told you not to tell me about Juno?!"

That was when Girouette looked up, and in a near chilling tone -the kind that would forever sound out of place in his generally soft spoken voice-, he said, "Your parents."

Hearing this, but not quite processing it for a moment, Vent remained motionless. Girouette, too, was silent. Eventually, the Cyber Elf gave a heavy sigh.

"What would happen if we could strip away the hate and sorrow in our hearts?" Girouette spoke, not quite to Vent, although it had been directed at the boy, "What would be left?"

Vent didn't say a word, so Girouette continued.

"Serpent tried to throw away everything until nothing was left to try and change the world. Knowing what you do now, what would you do Vent?"

Vent looked down, thinking it over for a moment. "I'll never get over the pain I feel for your death or knowing what you did to Juno." the boy said quietly. "But, those thoughts and memories are proof that I am alive. Thinking back on all our good times now, they're… difficult memories. _Sad_ memories." Vent looked up to face Girouette. "But I don't want to lose them. I want to protect them. I'll protect all of them!"

Girouette nodded. "Then it's your turn Vent," the Cyber Elf claimed, "Guide the world. Bring the world the future you think it deserves."

And with that, the Cyber Elf returned to its smaller form and flew away. Vent's sense of reality started to come back as well, now finding that he was sprawled on the pavement of the highway while someone nearby was desperately shouting something, but the boy wasn't coherent enough to make out what it was. An immense pain shot through his body from his leg, making him scream in surprise and hurt before slipping out of consciousness. As some blurred pink figure was desperately questioning Vent if he was alright, Model X whispered something before Vent completely blacked out.

' _Everyone hides some painful weakness in their heart. But that pain is what allows people to reach out to others. Actually, until you are able, I want you to rest and relax for now Vent, my son. Just for a few more moments…_ '


	27. Two Steps Back

Aile did not know where she was. Everything around her was white, and she found that she could not feel anything- not heat or cold, nor any kind of emotion that could spark some sense of urgency on where she was. Her memories were far too fuzzy to even remember how she got here. Faintly, she could recall something; some fight with a white and gold madman, a purple orb of pure electricity, and someone shouting her name...

"I'm dead." Aile said out loud to herself. "This is… I'm dead now..."

"Oh come on Aile, don't tell me you've given up already!" a voice from some boy said from behind her. Aile spun around to see a boy some years older than her, giving her a coy little wink with one of his emerald green eyes.

"Who…?"

The boy laughed at her, a sweet, playful laugh that Aile thought sounded similar to Vent's. "You can call me Sora." he offered. "Though just between you and me, we kinda share the same mom."

Aile's face changed from five different expressions as she thought about how that could have been possible. The boy, Sora, laughed at it. He then looked her over before saying, with a wide, joking smile,

"You know, technically you weren't part of the Guardians- you didn't take the test."

"That's not true!" Aile immediately debunked before taking a moment to pause. "I… I helped give that cat back..."

Sora raised a rather bemused eyebrow. "Is that what you tell yourself?" he snickered, sounding more playful than mean. "Alright then."

Aile opened her mouth to retort, but found that she had nothing to say. It wasn't long before the real question at hand occurred to her.

"Where am I?"

"Well," Sora mused, "I think it's called purgatory."

Aile raised an eyebrow. "You _think_?" she repeated, her voice just as filled with skepticism. Sora gave a diligent nod, making his coal black hair comically bounce a bit. Too bad Aile didn't feel like laughing.

"Yeah." he agreed. "You see, you and Vent are special. When you took the brunt of Serpent's surprise attack, the human part of you died- but the Reploid part of you is still ticking pretty well. You're dead, technically, except you're not… technically."

"It's really weird." Sora then went on, "In some universes, you weren't even needed to take down Serpent. It could've just been Vent. But here you just kinda… existed. Kinda like I am! Don't you think that's weird?"

"Are you saying that I don't matter in this world?" Aile questioned, growing confused and vaguely upset by her supposed half-brother's ramblings. In response, Sora gave an odd shrug that indicated that it was likely the case. Deep inside of her, Aile got a sense of bitterness and self hatred.

"You can't just give up though Aile." Sora then spoke up, as if he could sense Aile's inner existential crisis. "I haven't known you long, but I've got a good feeling that you don't give up. What if Mom had given up when I was declared stillborn? This world would probably be completely screwed over without you and Vent!"

"But you just said it yourself," the girl reminded her stillborn brother, "I didn't need to exist. I didn't need to be here. Or… or there..."

Sora gave her a playful side smirk. "You could come with me then." he offered her. "We can go see Mom. You've never met her formally, I think, but you two would really get along I bet."

"I can't do that to Vent." Aile declined with a shake of her head.

"But Vent's not here, sis." Sora pointed out, gesturing to the white air around them. "It's just the two of us, alone here in purgatory until you decide on where you're going."

Tears started to form in Aile's eyes without warning. "I… I'm sorry, but… but I can't… I don't want… not yet..."

Sora frowned and moved a bit closer to Aile so he could gently place his hands on her shoulders. "Hey now, don't cry." he said to her calmly, "That's why I'm here- to give you some more time."

"How?"

"You'll just have to trust me on that." the stillborn informed her without a blink. "Are you sure this is what you want to do though?"

Aile nodded in between a small sniffle. Sora moved a bit closer to his sister to give her a small kiss on the forehead as the light around them started to envelop around their bodies, casting them out of this limbo state for good.

. . .

"What is Vent and Aile's status, Muguet?" Prairie, in full on commander voice, questioned the nurse.

"Vent is recovering steadily." Muguet confirmed. "While still unconscious, he should be waking up in a day or so."

"Were you able to recover his 'other half'?"

"As much as we were able. Once he wakes, we plan on having him Merge with Model X for a short while to 'reboot' the system- so to speak. Fleuve and I agreed that a good three hour training session should do the trick."

"And Aile?"

At this, the nurse shifted uncomfortably.

"Will she recover?" Prairie asked Muguet rather darkly.

"If you had asked me that question a week ago, right after Slither Inc fell… I would have said no." the nurse admitted. "But _something_ happened while she was in stasis. Nothing _we_ did of course, but something that served as a catalyst for her recovery."

"Which was…?"

Muguet looked up at Prairie will a dull look. "Commander, Aile was clinically dead when she was brought to me. I did everything to bring her back and when nothing worked, I placed her in a cryogenic freezer while I tended to Vent. And while I was trying to figure out how to tell Vent about his next major loss, she just… came back. I happened to notice that she was breathing -rather shallowly, mind you- and I took vital signs again to prove that she had come back. I don't know what happened, but something did. I can't explain it further than that."

For awhile, Prairie was silent as she attempted to wrap her head around the mystery. Eventually, she finally asked, "Did you check both parts of her being?"

" _Yes_ Commander." Muguet stressed. "I did everything I could think of. I read Ciel's notes just as well as you did- and I swore that if the human portion dies, the Reploid portion will die as well under considerable stress. And trust me on this ma'am, Aile's Reploid parts were under enough stress to spontaneously combust."

Slowly, Prairie thought this over and gave a small nod of understanding. "Do we have an estimated time on her waking?"

Much to Prairie's fear, the nurse shook her head.

"My best estimations would place it around 51 days, but the rate of it being higher is nearly limitless at the time."

"So Aile will never wake up?"

"Oh, she will." Muguet huffed as if Prairie had insulted her. "Eventually. Just not as soon as Vent will."

Understanding now that there was little else to do with Aile's condition, Prairie gave Muguet a stiff nod and a mumbled, "Thank you Muguet. Carry on." before heading back to the command center. Rubbing the bridge of her nose and she entered the command center, Prairie happened to look up in time to realize that someone was sitting in her chair.

"Hey!" she shouted at the intruder. "Who let you in?"

"Nah, come on Prairie-Alouette," the intruder teased as they turned her seat around, placing themselves in her eyesight. "Time traveling is exhausting business you know."

Prairie gave the stranger a wary side glance. Something about him was familiar: he was a Reploid with blue, black and white armor. A fur trimmed collar helped adorn the armor.

"Over-1…?" Prairie guessed out loud. The Reploid did not confirm nor deny that it was his name, instead he stood up and walked a bit closer to the commander.

"Metempsychosis. Do you know what this is Commander?"

"No." Prairie admitted. "I don't think I do."

"It's a belief system," Over-1 explained, "That when we die our souls are placed in a new body. If one would think of Aile and Vent as pure incarnates of Crea and Prea, then it could be argued that they hold some weight of this idea being true. They are… metempsychotic, if you would like a not-quite grammatical jargon. But tell me Prairie, do you really think that they are metempsychotic to Crea and Prea, knowing them now? Or, perhaps, you feel they better reflect the other two?"

The commander was silent as she thought this over. "Is it… Wouldn't it be possible for them to just be… well, themselves? I mean, sure, maybe once being Crea and Prea brought them together but… but couldn't they evolved away from that? Couldn't they just be Aile and Vent and not… not some reincarnation of someone else?"

"And thus our argument comes to an impasse, Commander." Over-1 smirked.

"Why are you here?" Prairie then questioned in a rather accusatory tone.

"Finally, the real question!" the old Reploid mused. "Now we're getting somewhere!"

Prairie blinked, a notion that Over-1 chuckled at before he said, "So, Commander Prairie, how much of Ciel's message have you been able to decode so far?"

"Roughly 92.8% at the moment. Why?"

"Well… from what I understand, part of Ciel's message contained several old encryption methods. In particular, I believe part thirteen contains some Base64 language that your crew is having a hard time deciphering. Not that I blame them, it's an archaic computer language, even by today's standards."

"And what are you trying to say?!" Prairie demanded. "Are you implying that you know what Sis's message is in its entirety? That you're somehow going to know exactly where she is or something?"

"Or something." Over-1 smirked. Prairie recoiled. "In two years, I'll be back for you to find Ciel."

For the longest time, Prairie was silent. "Why two years?" she skeptically questioned.

"Because time is a constant, and there are events that must transpire in a specific order."

Thinking over this, Prairie eventually gave Over-1 a nod. "Don't keep me waiting."

The older Reploid's answer was only a simple smirk.


	28. The Last Promise

_**Two months later…**_

It was early- way too early for Vent's liking. Yet, for just this once, he didn't particularly mind it either. For the first time in two months, Vent was able to breathe freely. In just a short amount of time, almost every citizen on the country had come together to help rebuild the highway and portions of Areas G, S, and T; all of which were residential areas effected by the fall of Slither Inc. After recovering and waking up from his scrape with Serpent, Vent had immediately went to help Sho at Giro Express.

Keeping busy was what distracted Vent from Aile's recovery status which, for quite awhile, looked dismal.

Vent wasn't even there when Aile woke up. Work at the warehouse went on for longer than Sho had expected, so Vent had stayed as late as the Reploid needed him. At the end of his shift, Vent would have gone to his room and slept, but Giro Express no longer felt like a home to him so he took a transerver back to Guardian HQ. When he stepped off the transerver, he almost didn't realize that Rush had been waiting for him. It took the bark of the mutt to gain Vent's attention.

"Hey boy." Vent said to Rush, petting the Reploid dog. "Anything fun happen while I was gone?"

To this, Rush gave Vent a rather ecstatic bark before giving the boy many licks to the face. Affording a small laugh, Vent pushed the mutt off which then lead to Rush heading toward the door, taking a look at Vent happily in indication.

"You want me to follow you?" the boy then asked.

Rush gave another happy bark in reply.

"Alright," Vent relented, "I'm following."

Making good on his promise, Vent followed Rush through Guardian base. It didn't quite click to Vent on where they were going until he saw the sign of Aile's room in the infirmary. Rush waited patiently for Vent at the base of the door. He looked on at the boy as if the mutt knew something Vent didn't. Vent looked down at Rush before looking at the door- carefully, slowly, he opened it to find something that nearly made him faint.

"Aile!"

There in the middle of the room, using Muguet to stable herself, was Aile. Hearing her brother's voice, Aile looked up to face Vent. Her skin was paler than usual, her face was sunk in as if she was death itself, and she just looked absolutely weary; but Vent didn't care- Aile was alive and awake and certainly unprepared as Vent rushed toward her.

"Easy! Easy! Easy! _Easy_!" Muguet demanded in rising pitch as Vent pulled Aile in for a rather tight hug. But Vent ignored the nurse.

"You're alive!" the boy repeated in relief and astonishment. "You're alive! You're alive!"

Despite him absolutely crushing her, Aile let Vent have this moment as she carefully tried to place her chin on his shoulder. Hugs were nice, she'd have to do this more often now.

. . .

Muguet permitted Aile to leave Guardian HQ the next day- but she could not go too far. Aile didn't care where she went as long as it was out of HQ. Thankfully, Vent knew a small takeout place near the highway and from there they just relaxed. The highway had been cleared since the cleanup of Slither Inc was underway, so there was nothing stopping the twins (and Rush, who had tagged along) from sitting at the edge of the highway bridge and just relaxing.

"So..." Aile then lulled; sitting so she was just barely at the edge of the road, one foot propped on the edge and the other casually dangling below, "What happened while I was out?"

To this, Vent uncomfortably shifted a little. Unlike Aile, Vent was sitting a good inch away from the highway's edge and was keeping his legs crossed.

"Prairie had me investigate Area N." he finally admitted.

"Really?"

Vent gave a small nod as he remembered a dual voice shout ' _Ware wa meshia nari!_ ' at him the same way the Biometals used their thought-speak. He didn't know what it meant, but the voice that said it had given him the chills. If he remembered correctly, even Model Z trembled slightly at the voice.

"Yeah..." Vent then said, if only to shake himself from his thoughts. "I could barely write the mission report after."

"Area M was pretty weird when I went through." Aile agreed. "I can't image what it would be like closer to that anomaly or whatever it was."

Vent just gave a small nod as he tried to divert his attention elsewhere- remembering for a split second that the ghost had eyes that flickered some other color before returning to that bloodshot red. The color had been familiar, as if they were the eyes of someone he knew, someone that wanted him to find them and save them…

"Prairie came by the infirmary almost directly after I woke up." Aile then spoke up, perhaps sensing that Vent was remembering something that troubled him. "She told me that in my current state, I am no longer fit to go out on field missions."

"Really?!" Vent immediately questioned, trying hard not to sound immensely pleased. Admittedly aggravated at his thinly veiled enthusiasm, Aile ignored him to go on to say,

"But then she said that I could still have a potential here on base. She wants me to understudy her."

"Why?" Vent then quizzically asked.

"You haven't heard?" Aile replied, mirroring his confusion.

Vent shrunk a little before bitterly mumbling, "Apparently not..."

"Prairie plans on stepping down as the Guardian's commander some time in the next two years or so. And since she's been taking me in under her wing, everyone assumes that I'll fill in for her when time comes."

"Why two years?" Vent questioned, although he was rather perplexed on why she wanted to step down at all.

"Dunno," Aile admitted with a shrug. "I only overheard it this morning, and I haven't had the time to ask her directly."

"So it's just a rumor..." Vent said, mostly to himself, as he made himself relax again. Aile knew that it likely was the truth, in some form, but kept her opinions to herself. Instead she reclined backwards onto the pavement and took a deep, relaxing breath in. A sharp pain in her abdomen made her sit back up again; Vent hadn't noticed the disturbance, but Rush had. The wolf-dog nudged Aile with concern and she smiled back at Rush before giving him a good scratch on the ear.

"Vent, I think I want to go back to HQ." Aile announced quietly. The boy looked up at her (maybe catching a hint that something was off but not knowing what) and immediately got up after. Together, with Rush taking guard from behind, the three went back to Guardian HQ.

After Aile had made it safely back to the infirmary, Vent was alone once more. Letting his mind wander, the boy let his feet take him to his room in Guardian HQ. On a shelf above the small bed were two photographs- the one of Pandora before Model W, and one of him, Girouette, and Juno when he was much, much younger. They were reminders.

Still working autonomously, Vent got the photograph of his family off the shelf, plopped down on the bed, and gently traced the picture frame. He didn't mean to run through every memory he had of them together, and he certainly didn't mean to start crying either.

" _Vent...? Are you alright? You seem so… out of it._ "

"No… I.. I'm not…" the boy quietly wept. "Everything's the same, but it's all so different..."

' _I miss them too._ ' the soft thought-speak of Model Z resonated, almost scaring Vent. ' _But time keeps moving forward, so we must keep going too._ '

"Model Z..." Vent then sighed. "Did they ever… Was Juno always…?"

' _Vent, listen to me: do you remember when Juno left Giro Express?_ '

The boy gave a small nod.

' _Up until she came back, Juno could not hear me. She knew_ of _me, of course, because Girouette could never say no to her, but she couldn't hear me like you can now. Girouette did_ not _want you to come with him for the exchange with the Guardians, but as you're aware, Juno had gone missing a week before. With Sho leading the warehouse, he had no choice but to bring you. When you fell over the cliff because of the bike's engine, Girouette nearly stopped functioning. Then Juno came, possessed by Model W and another that I can't name at the moment, and he lost his hope. He just… couldn't take it. Vent, Girouette and Juno loved each other very much -enough that just watching them interact made me sick- never,_ ever _forget that. They loved you just as much and Girouette wanted anything to have you three safe and together again. His last wish was that, even if he did not survive, that you and Juno could find each other. Maybe you could even save her._ '

"But she's dead Model Z, just like Boss."

' _The report never mentioned that her body was recovered from the site, Vent._ '

Carefully taking this information in, Vent -in a delay- had a hard time relating what this had to do with the matter at hand.

' _It's time for you to face destiny and carve out a new future for yourself.'_ Model Z then instructed. _'It's a struggle that you and every living thing on this planet must cope with. You have the strength, Vent, I know you do. Use it._ '

"Facing destiny and carving out the future..." the boy then repeated softly. His grip on the photograph starting to tighten as a sense of determination filled his body.

"I have something I must protect." the boy then declared, "And I _will_ fight for it! I will fight for what I believe in, and that's a promise!"


End file.
